Former president of Liberia Taylor
sentenced to 50 years in prison

LEIDSCHENDAM – The former president of Liberia, Charles Taylor, was sentenced to 50 years in prison by the special court convicted of crimes against humanity and war during the conflict in Sierra Leone.
Taylor was accused of having armed rebels in the civil war between 1991 and 2002. According to the judges, the man “was not just a supplier of arms or a financier”, but rather “the architect of one of the bloodiest chapters in the history of the invasion of Freetown “, the capital of the African country that bordered Liberia.

The trial of the former Liberian president began in January 2007.The public prosecutor had requested a sentence of 80 years in prison last May, underlining “the enormity” of the crimes committed by the defendant. His lawyers had considered the request “excessive” and for this reason they had asked that their client not be sentenced to life imprisonment.

President of Liberia from 1997 to 2003, he was arrested in 2006 in Nigeria. Already last month, the court found him guilty of eleven charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes – including rapes, murders and looting committed between 1996 and 2002 in Sierra Leone – for guaranteeing logistical assistance and support to the rebels of the United Revolutionary Front (RUF) who were guilty of killing tens of thousands of people and recruiting child soldiers during the civil war in the sierra lion (1991-2001). In exchange for support, Taylor received “diamonds” collected from slaves. According to the prosecution, the former Liberian head of state “helped and encouraged” a campaign of terror aimed at gaining control of Sierra Leone with the aim of getting his hands on his diamonds, during a civil conflict costing 120,000 dead and marked also from numerous acts of cannibalism and mutilation.

Despite the sentence, the man however he continues to declare himself innocent and it is very likely that he will appeal. According to the BBC, the appeal process could last up to six months. Taylor is the first African head of state condemned by international justice from the Nuremberg trials against the Nazis after the Second World War.

(May 30, 2012)