• English Site
• > Must Reads
• > Africa

Alleged African War Criminal

Charles Taylor Travels to Europe for Trial

Charles Taylor arrived in Rotterdam last night to face war crimes charges. The former president of Liberia stands accused of murder, rape and mutilation during Sierra Leone's bloody civil war.

Call it prison tourism. Charles Taylor, the former president of Liberia who is now facing charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, touched down in Rotterdam on Tuesday night before being transferred to a maximum security Dutch prison outside The Hague. He will be held in a wing of the facility leased out by the International Criminal Court -- the same facility which housed former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic before his death in March.

Taylor, 58, was moved out of concern that his appearance in the dock of the Special Court of Sierra Leone -- set up to investigate crimes committed by Taylor and his government -- could spark unrest. A number of co-defendants will be tried in Freetown and prosecutors say that the transfer will have no effect on the trial or its outcome. A start date for the trial has not yet been set.

"In terms of procedure and substance, nothing at all is changed by the fact that one trial is happening in another place," deputy prosecutor Christopher Staker told reporters on Tuesday according to the AP.

Taylor triggered a Liberian insurgency in 1989 and was elected president in 1997. Three years later, rebels took up arms against him and in 2003 he fled to Nigeria. His defense lawyers are still studying the some 2,000 pages of documents that prosecutors say will prove he was responsible for the murder, rape and mutilation of thousands of civilians during Sierra Leone's 10 year civil war. His soldiers, it is alleged, forced women and girls to become sex slaves and also cut off people's limbs and otherwise mutilated them.

Taylor was particularly interested in profiting from Sierra Leone's diamond trade. The country's devastating civil war was largely fought by young boys who were given drugs to encourage them to partake in violent behavior.

While the trial is not taking place under the auspices of the International Criminal Court, it is backed by the United Nations and marks the first time a former African leader has had to face an UN-sponsored tribunal. The Special Court of Sierra Leone set up a deal with the ICC in April under which the Sierra Leone court will pay all costs for holding Taylor and conducting the trial.

In April, Taylor appeared before an UN-sponsored court for his initial hearing. He pled innocent to 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity -- and of attacking UN workers.

den/AFP/Reuters/AP