Former Liberian leader Taylor sentenced to 50 years jail by war crimes court

Wednesday, 30 May 2012 

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor is due to serve his 50 year sentence at a high security prison in Britain. (AFP)

By Al Arabiya with Agencies

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor was jailed for 50 years on Wednesday for helping Sierra Leonean rebels commit what a court in The Hague called some of the worst war crimes in history.

Taylor, 64, was the first head of state convicted by an international court since the Nazi Nuremberg Nazi trials in 1946 and the sentence set a precedent for the emerging system of international justice.

In an 11-year war that ended in 2002, Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front rebels murdered, raped and mutilated their way across Liberia’s West African neighbor, helped by Taylor.

In return, he was paid in diamonds mined by slave labor in areas under control of the rebels, who whomalso forced children aged under 15 to fight, the court found.

“He was found responsible for aiding and abetting some of the most heinous and brutal crimes in recorded history,” said the Special Court for Sierra Leone’s presiding judge Richard Lussick, emphasizing that the world was “entering a new era of accountability.” 

Although shorter than the 80 years that prosecutors had sought, the sentence set a precedent for an international justice system aimed at deterring future war crimes. The court rejected all the defense’s appeals for leniency.

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Sierra Leone: Landmark Conviction of Liberian Ex-President | Human Rights Watch

Street vendor watches live broadcast of verdict being delivered by United Nations-backed court in the Hague convicting former Liberian president Charles Taylor in Freetown.

(The Hague) – The conviction on April 26, 2012, of Charles Taylor, the former president of Liberia, for serious international crimes during Sierra Leone’s brutal armed conflict provides justice for victims and shows that no one is above the law, Human Rights Watch said today. Taylor was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity before the United Nations-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone on charges that stemmed from his support for rebel groups there.

“Powerful leaders like Charles Taylor have for too long lived comfortably above the law,” said Elise Keppler, senior international justice counsel at Human Rights Watch. “Taylor’s conviction sends a message to those in power that they can be held to account for grave crimes.”

FOR THE FULL ARTICLE CLICK HERE: Sierra Leone: Landmark Conviction of Liberian Ex-President | Human Rights Watch