Charles Taylor: Difference between revisions

As president, Taylor restructured the army, filling it with members of his former militia. Conflict ensued between Taylor and the opposition, and Monrovia became the scene of widespread gun battles and [[looting]]. Governments around the world accused Taylor of supporting the rebelling [[Revolutionary United Front]] in Sierra Leone, and in 2000 the United Nations Security Council imposed sanctions on Liberia. The country was subsequently gripped again by civil war, and Taylor, accused of gross human rights violations, was indicted by a UN-sponsored war-crimes tribunal (the Special Court for Sierra Leone) in 2003. Following widespread international condemnation, Taylor agreed to go into exile in Nigeria. In March 2006, however, the Liberian government requested Taylor’s extradition, and Nigeria announced that it would comply with the order. Taylor subsequently attempted to flee Nigeria but was quickly captured. Charged with [[crimes against humanity]] and [[war crimes]] committed during Sierra Leone’s civil war, he was later sent to The Hague, where he was to be tried before the Special Court for Sierra Leone. The trial began in June 2007, despite Taylor’s refusal to appear in court for the opening session.

The proceedings at The Hague unfolded slowly. The court heard the testimony of 91 witnesses called to testify against Taylor before the prosecution rested its case in February 2009. It was not until July 2009 that Taylor took the stand in his own defense. In his testimony he denied all charges against him, including conscripting child soldiers, ordering amputations and other mutilations of civilians, and illegally dealing in diamonds to fuel the 1990s conflict (so-called “blood diamonds”). The investigation into whether Taylor had indeed trafficked in diamonds was highly publicized, in part because British model Naomi Campbell was called to testify in August 2010 about a stone (or a number of stones) that Taylor allegedly had given her in South Africa in 1997.