BNW

 

Biafra Nigeria World News & Archives

 

BNW News and Archives

 

 

BNW: the Authority on BiafraNigeria

BNW Magazine 

Biafra Nigeria World Forums and Message Board

 BNW News Archive

BNW Home

 

BNW Writer's Block

 WaZoBia @ BNW

Biafra Net

 Igbo Net

Africa World and BNW Africa 

Submit Article for Publication

BiafraNigeria Spacer

BiafraNigeria Spacer

 

Flag of Biafra Nigeria

 

BNW News Archives

BNW News Archive 2002-January 2005

BNW News Archive 2005

BNW News Archive 2005 and Later

 

BiafraNigeriaWorld News: Weblogs Edition @ Blog Continent


« EFCC Extends Probe To 36 Governors | Main | Etiebet quits ANPP »

June 20, 2006

Charles Taylor leaves for trial

Former Liberian leader Charles Taylor has left Sierra Leone on a plane ahead of his trial in The Hague.

The UN-backed tribunal in Sierra Leone said he was taken by helicopter to Freetown's airport from his prison cell where he has been since his capture.

Mr Taylor faces 11 war crimes charges after allegedly backing rebels in the decade-long Sierra Leone civil war.

Last week, the United Kingdom offered to host any jail term he may serve, paving the way for his transfer.

The Dutch government agreed to host Mr Taylor's trial, as long as he was imprisoned in another country if he was convicted.

The trial is due to take place in the facilities of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, but it will be legal officials assigned to the Sierra Leone tribunal who will be responsible.

The proceedings have been moved because of concerns that a trial in Sierra Leone itself could provoke instability there.

Conflict

The tribunal's chief prosecutor once described Mr Taylor as the third most wanted war crimes suspect in the world.

Both Sierra Leone and Liberia are recovering from years of conflict, in which Mr Taylor played a central role.

He is accused of funding Sierra Leone's former rebels, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) by selling diamonds on their behalf and buying weapons for them.

The RUF were notorious for mutilating civilians, by hacking off their arms or legs with machetes.

Britain, the former colonial power in Sierra Leone, sent troops to help oust rebels from the capital, Freetown in 2000.

Mr Taylor started Liberia's civil war as a warlord in 1989, before being elected president in 1997.

In August 2003, with rebels already in the Liberian capital, he agreed to go into exile in southern Nigeria to end the conflict.

He was captured after disappearing from his home following diplomatic efforts to send him to Sierra Leone for trial.

Tens of thousands of people died in the interlinked conflicts in Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Posted by Publisher at June 20, 2006 12:56 PM

Comments

Post a comment

Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)


Remember me?





BNW Writers A-M


BNW Writers N-Z

 

BiafraNigeria Banner

BiafraNigeria Spacer

 

BiafraNigeria Spacer

 

BiafraNigeria Spacer

 

BiafraNigeria Spacer

 

BiafraNigeria Spacer

 

BiafraNigeria Spacer

 

BiafraNigeria Spacer

 

BiafraNigeria Spacer

 

BiafraNigeria Spacer

 

BiafraNigeria Spacer

 

BiafraNigeria Spacer

 

BiafraNigeria Spacer

BiafraNigeria Spacer

 

BNW Forums

 

The Voice of a New Generation