Taylors Trials

Charles Taylor

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On 7 March , the Court approved a count indictment, which was ordered kept under seal. The Prosecutor unsealed the indictment on 4 June while Taylor was attending a peace conference in Ghana. Through counsel, Taylor challenged the Court's jurisdiction on the grounds of sovereign immunity and extra-territoriality. On 31 May the Appeals Chamber dismissed the motion and ruled that he was subject to the jurisdiction of the Special Court.

On 16 March the Court approved an amended indictment, reducing the number of counts from 17 to On 29 March , following lengthy negotiations, the Nigerian authorities arrested Taylor near the Cameroonian border as he attempted to flee the country.

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He was then re-arrested by the Prosecution. Taylor made his initial appearance before Judge Richard Lussick in Freetown, where he pleaded not guilty to all charges. On 20 June he was transferred to The Hague. Minutes before the trial opened, Taylor sacked his legal team, demanded new counsel, and boycotted his trial. The trial resumed on 7 January The Prosecution called its first witness on 7 January and concluded on 30 January On 5 August the Prosecution was allowed to re-open its case to hear the evidence of three additional witnesses.

The evidence of witnesses was presented to the Court. The Prosecution formally rested its case on 27 February , after the Trial Chamber handed down decisions on pending motions. On 27 February , the day the Prosecution rested its case, the Defence announced it would file a Rule 78 motion, a Motion for Judgement of Acquittal.

The Trial Chamber heard oral submissions on the motion from the Defence on 6 April and oral submissions from the Prosecution in response on 9 April On 4 May the Trial Chamber, in an oral ruling, dismissed the motion in its entirety. On 13 July the Defence made their opening statement, and on 14 July called Charles Ghankay Taylor to testify in his own defence. Taylor's testimony concluded on 18 February , and his Defence then called twenty additional witnesses. The Defence rested their case on 12 November This group was frequently accused of atrocities, and is thought to have been backed by the government of neighboring Guinea.

Monrovia and the central part of the country. More than one-third of the total population lived in this area. Some have claimed that Taylor ordered Bockarie killed in order to prevent the leader from testifying against him at the SCSL. In June , Alan White, the Prosecutor to the Special Court unsealed the indictment and announced publicly that Taylor was charged with war crimes.

The indictment asserted that Taylor created and backed the RUF rebels in Sierra Leone, who were accused of a range of atrocities, including the use of child soldiers. As result, the possilibity arose that Taylor might be arrested by Ghanaian authorities; in response, Taylor's chief bodyguard and military commander Benjamin Yeaten threatened to execute Ghanians who lived in Liberia, deterring Ghana's government from taking action. During Taylor's absence for the peace talks in Ghana, the U. In July , LURD initiated a siege of Monrovia, and several bloody battles were fought as Taylor's forces halted rebel attempts to capture the city.

The pressure on Taylor increased as U. Bush twice that month stated that Taylor "must leave Liberia". Taylor insisted that he would resign only if U. Bush publicly called upon Taylor to resign and leave the country in order for any American involvement to be considered. Frick, from three U. Navy amphibious ships waiting off the Liberian coast. On 10 August, Taylor appeared on national television to announce that he would resign the following day and hand power to Vice President Blah.

He harshly criticized the United States in his farewell address , saying that the Bush administration 's insistence that he leave the country would hurt Liberia. Taylor flew to Nigeria, where the Nigerian government provided houses for him and his entourage in Calabar. In November , the United States Congress passed a bill that included a reward offer of two million dollars for Taylor's capture.

While the peace agreement had guaranteed Taylor safe exile in Nigeria, it also required that he refrain from influencing Liberian politics. His critics said he disregarded this prohibition. On 4 December, Interpol issued a red notice regarding Taylor, suggesting that countries had a duty to arrest him. Taylor was placed on Interpol's Most Wanted list, declaring him wanted for crimes against humanity and breaches of the Geneva Convention , and noting that he should be considered dangerous.

Nigeria stated it would not submit to Interpol's demands, agreeing to deliver Taylor to Liberia only in the event that the President of Liberia requested his return. Nigeria agreed only to release Taylor and not to extradite him, as no extradition treaty existed between the two countries.

Q&A: Charles Taylor on trial

Three days after Nigeria announced its intent to transfer Taylor to Liberia, the leader disappeared from the seaside villa where he had been living in exile. Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo was scheduled to meet with President Bush less than 48 hours after Taylor was reported missing. Speculation ensued that Bush would refuse to meet with Obasanjo if Taylor were not apprehended.

Less than 12 hours prior to the scheduled meeting between the two heads of state, Taylor was reported apprehended en route to Liberia. On 29 March, Taylor tried to cross the border into Cameroon through the border town of Gamboru in northeastern Nigeria. His Range Rover with Nigerian diplomatic plates was stopped by border guards, and Taylor's identity was eventually established.

US State Department staff later reported that significant amounts of cash and heroin were found in the vehicle.

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The SCSL prosecutor originally indicted Taylor on 3 March on a counts for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the conflict in Sierra Leone. Under the amended indictment, Taylor was charged with 11 counts. At Taylor's initial appearance before the court on 3 April , he entered a plea of not guilty. King's predecessor had pushed for the trial to be held abroad because of fear that a local trial would be politically destabilizing in an area where Taylor still had influence.

This fulfilled a condition laid down by the Dutch government , who had stated they were willing to host the trial but would not jail him if convicted. British Foreign Minister Margaret Beckett stated that new legislation would be required to accommodate this arrangement. He was taken into custody and held in the detention centre of the International Criminal Court , located in the Scheveningen section of The Hague.

Taylor was established in June to assist in his legal defence.

When Taylor's trial opened 4 June , Taylor boycotted the proceeding and was not present. Through a letter that was read by his attorney to the court, he justified his absence by alleging that at that moment he was not ensured a fair and impartial trial. On 20 August , Taylor's defence now led by Courtenay Griffiths obtained a postponement of the trial until 7 January In January , the prosecution finished presenting its evidence against Taylor and closed its case on 27 February On 4 May , a defence motion for a judgment on acquittal was dismissed, and arguments for Taylor's defence began in July On 8 February , the trial court ruled in a 2—1 decision that it would not accept Taylor's trial summary, as the summary had not been submitted by the January 14 deadline.

In response, Taylor and his counsel boycotted the trial and refused an order by the court to begin closing arguments. This boycott came soon after the leak of American diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks , in which the United States discussed the possibility of extraditing Taylor for prosecution in the United States in the event of his acquittal by the SCSL. Taylor's counsel cited the leaked cable and the court's decision as evidence of an international conspiracy against Taylor.

On 3 March, the appeals court of the SCSL overturned the trial court's decision, ruling that as the trial court had not established that Taylor had been counseled by the court and personally indicated his intent to waive his right to a trial summary, Taylor's due process rights would be violated by preventing him from submitting a trial summary.

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The appeals court ordered the trial court to accept the summary and set a date for the beginning of closing arguments. The verdict was announced in Leidschendam on 26 April Taylor was convicted of the following 11 charges: At his trial, Taylor claimed that he was a victim, denied the charges and compared his actions of torture and crimes against humanity to the actions of George W. Bush in the War on Terror. Taylor was sentenced to 50 years in prison. His sentence was upheld on appeal. Sierra Leone's government described the sentence as "a step forward as justice has been done, though the magnitude of the sentence is not commensurate with the atrocities committed".

Taylor appealed against the verdict, but on 26 September Appeals Chamber of the Special Court confirmed his guilt and the penalty of 50 years in prison. In Taylor married Jewel Taylor , with whom he has one son. She filed for divorce in , citing her husband's exile in Nigeria and the difficulty of visiting him due to a UN travel ban on her. Jewel Taylor currently serves as the Vice President of Liberia. He was arrested by Liberian police officials on 5 March and charged with attempted murder in connection with an assault on the son of an immigration officer who had assisted in Charles Taylor's extradition; [70] the mother of the victim claimed that Phillip Taylor had sworn vengeance against the immigration officer.

He was arrested at Buchanan in Grand Bassa County , [71] allegedly while attempting to cross the border into the Ivory Coast. Taylor has three children with his second wife Victoria Addison Taylor; the youngest, Charlize, was born in March Taylor also has another son, a U.

Emmanuel was arrested in after entering the United States and was charged with three counts, including participation in torture while serving in the Anti-Terrorist Unit in Liberia during his father's presidency. The law that prosecuted Taylor was put in place in , before "extraordinary rendition" in an attempt to prevent U. To date, this is the only prosecuted case. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For other people by that name, see Charles Taylor disambiguation.

Enoch Dogolea Moses Blah. Enid Tupee Taylor Jewel Howard — Retrieved 18 January Retrieved 5 August The New York Times. Liberia's Charles Taylor on the Stand". Retrieved 14 July Retrieved 1 May Retrieved 9 June Taylor's first year report card. President Charles Ghankay Taylor ". Archived from the original on 5 December Retrieved 27 April Justice Minister Flies Back".

Accessed 4 June Retrieved 17 July The Mask of Anarchy: Journal of Modern African Studies. Retrieved 19 January Douglas Farah, Stephen Braun.

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