Charles Taylor’s Hague trial begins

Former Liberian president accused of arming Sierra Leone rebels that raped and killed.

charles taylor, sierra leone, liberia, hague
The decade-long civil war in Sierra Leone left at least 60,000 people dead and thousands mutilated [AP]
Taylor, 59, is seen as the most powerful figure in the conflicts in Sierra Leone and in his own country between 1989 and 2003, but the trial will not cover the wars in Liberia.
 
Charles Taylor

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The charges

  1. Acts of terrorism
  2. Murder
  3. Violence to life, health and physical or mental well-being of persons, in particular murder
  4. Rape
  5. Sexual slavery and any other form of sexual violence
  6. Outrages upon personal dignity
  7. Violence to life, health and physical or mental well-being of persons, in particular cruel treatment
  8. Other inhumane acts
  9. Conscripting or enlisting children under the age of 15 years into armed forces or groups, or using them to participate actively in hostilities
  10. Enslavement
  11. Pillage

Click here for timeline

Prosecutors allege that he waged “a campaign of terror against the civilian population of Sierra Leone” by arming and training Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front (RUF), which murdered and mutilated civilians, raped women and recruited child soldiers.

 
Taylor is alleged to have been responsible for many of the mutilations, in exchange for still-unknown amounts of so-called blood diamonds.
 
The decade-long civil war in Sierra Leone left at least 60,000 people dead and thousands mutilated with limbs, ears or noses cut off.
 
If convicted, the statute of the Sierra Leone tribunal states that Taylor must be sentenced to “imprisonment for a specified number of years” without giving a maximum, meaning he could go to prison for life.
 
Under the deal to relocate the trial to the Netherlands, it was agreed that if convicted, he would serve his sentence in a British prison.
 
Taylor follows in the footsteps of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, who was the first ever head of state to go on trial for war crimes before an international court.
 
Milosevic died on March 11, 2006 in the same prison in The Hague where Taylor is now being held, while his trial was still under way before the UN court for the former Yugoslavia.
 
In the run-up to the trial, Taylor’s defence lawyer Karim Khan repeatedly complained that he did not have enough time or resources to properly prepare for the trial.
 
He also protested against the change of venue, saying it affected the former president’s right to a fair trial.
 
Signal
 
Rights groups have hailed the trial as a signal that no one is above the law.
 

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Taylor is accused of enlisting child soldiers
during the civil war in Sierra Leone [AP]

Stephen Rapp, the prosecutor for the Special Court for Sierra Leone, said: “In the past it has been possible for chiefs of state … responsible for incredible crimes … to escape punishment by either remaining in power until their death, or even if they are overthrown or replaced, given the option of safe exile.”

 
But “there can be no peace without justice”, he said.
 
Human Rights Watch stressed that it was important that the trial stay accessible to people in the region.
 
“People in West Africa need to know what’s happening in Taylor’s trial,” said Elise Keppler of Human Rights Watch’s international justice programme.
 
The prosecution plans to present 150 witnesses and estimates that the trial could be concluded before Christmas 2008.
Source: News Agencies