Alain Werner

Alain Werner is an international criminal lawyer admitted to the Geneva Bar (1999) with a LL.M from Columbia University (2003).

M. Werner worked for several years for the Office of the Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) both in Freetown and in The Hague. He appeared in court in several trials at the SCSL, including the trial of the former President of Liberia, Charles Taylor. M. Werner also represented the largest group of victims in the first trial at the Extraordinary Chambers within the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), the case against Kaing Guek Eav or Duch in Phnom Penh. And in Dakar in front of the Extraordinary African Chambers (AEC) M. Werner represented victims in the trial of the former President of Chad, Hissène Habré. In 2012 Alain Werner founded Civitas Maxima, a network of international lawyers and investigators that facilitated so far 12 public criminal cases linked to international crimes in 7 countries, on 2 continents resulting in 6 trials.

As a lawyer and Director of Civitas Maxima M. Werner represented victims in Switzerland in front of the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona in the Alieu Kosiah case that led to the first conviction in front of that court for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

M. Werner was awarded in 2019 the Bâtonnier Michel Halperin Prize for Excellence by the Geneva Bar, and became in 2020 a Fellow of Ashoka, the largest and oldest network of social entrepreneurs in the world.