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Liberian Warlord Living in Philly Sued for Massacre

Moses Thomas ID’d as man behind 1990 church killing in which 600 were slaughtered.

In the suburbs of Philadelphia, the owner of Klade’s Liberian restaurant—Moses Thomas—has been identified as a former Liberian warlord, according to federal civil court papers filed Monday. According to the documents, Thomas was behind some of the bloodiest events of the African nation’s civil war, including the July 1990 Lutheran church massacre in which 600 men, women, and children were “indiscriminately” shot and “methodically” hacked to death with machetes. The filing follows a four-year investigation by a coalition of human-rights organizations that identified Thomas as a member of dictator Samuel Doe’s anti-terrorist unit, based on interviews with former soldiers and survivors. The suit claims he “bears responsibility for the [Lutheran church massacre] murders by directing the attack.” Thomas gained a U.S. immigration status in 2000 that was reserved for war-crime victims. “I don’t want to give any credence to the allegation,” Thomas told the BBC. “No one in my unit had anything to do with the attack on the church.”