A Collingdale man who had been a Liberian warlord’s top lieutenant, died Sunday of coronavirus complications, writes Jeremy Roebuck for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Jucontee Thomas Woewiyu was 74. In the 1990s, he served warlord Charles Taylor and had been convicted in 2018 of lying to U.S. immigration officials about the role he played in war crimes committed by Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL).

He died before sentencing.

Woewlyy served as a senator and Minister of Labor in Liberia’s government.

“We are sorry for his family. We ‘re not happy that anyone dies, no matter what he might have done,” said Hassan Bility, director of the Global Justice and Research Project.  “But I think justice needed to serve it’s full course. Unfortunately, [his sentencing] was never to be.”

Family members described Woewiyu as a pillar of his community, lion of the Liberian cause.

Read more about Jucontee Thomas Woewiyu here.