Charles G. Taylor, the former president of Liberia and a once-powerful warlord, was sentenced on Wednesday to 50 years in prison for his role in atrocities committed in Sierra Leone during its civil war in the 1990s. In what was viewed as a watershed case for modern human rights law, Mr. Taylor was the first former head of state convicted by an international tribunal since the Nuremberg trials in Germany after World War II.
Mr. Taylor was found guilty of “aiding and abetting, as well as planning, some of the most heinous and brutal crimes recorded in human history,” said Richard Lussick, the judge who presided over the sentencing here in an international criminal court near The Hague. He said the lengthy prison term underscored Mr. Taylor’s position as a government’s leader during the time the crimes were committed. “Leadership must be carried out by example, by the prosecution of crimes, not the commission of crimes,” the judge said in a statement read before the court.
If carried out, the sentence is likely to mean that Mr. Taylor, 64, will spend the rest of his life in prison. He looked at the floor after he was asked to stand as the sentence was read. The chief prosecutor, Brenda Hollis, told a news conference that could be viewed in West Africa: “The sentence today does not replace amputated limbs; it does not bring back those who were murdered,” she said. “It does not heal the wounds of those who were raped or forced to become sexual slaves.”
Mr. Taylor’s legal team said it would file an appeal. “The sentence is clearly excessive, clearly disproportionate to his circumstances, his age and his health, and does not take into account the fact that he stepped down from office voluntarily,” said Morris Anya, one of Mr. Taylor’s lawyers.
The prosecution, which had sought an even longer sentence of 80 years, said it was considering its own appeal, to raise the level of responsibility attributed to Mr. Taylor for crimes committed under his leadership. Two rebel commanders tried earlier were handed similar prison sentences of 50 and 52 years, and a prosecutor said Mr. Taylor’s overall responsibility for the atrocities was considerably greater. He did not freely leave office, but was pushed out in 2003 as rebels marched on his capital and a delegation of African leaders urged him to prevent further bloodshed and seek exile in Nigeria. The court must set a precise prison term; it is not allowed to impose a life sentence or the death penalty.
Outside the courthouse, Salamba Silla, who works with victims’ groups in Sierra Leone, pleaded for more help for former child soldiers, orphans, people whose limbs were hacked off and other victims of the country’s war. “You can see hundreds of them begging on the streets of Freetown,” the capital, she said. “Many who suffered horrendously need help to return to the provinces, they think they cannot survive there.” Ibrahim Sorie, a lawmaker from Sierra Leone who had been seated in the court’s gallery, said the sentence was fair. “It restores our faith in the rule of law, and we see that impunity is ending for top people,” Mr. Sorie said. By previous agreement, Mr. Taylor will serve his sentence in a British prison, but since the appeals process is expected to last at least a year, he will remain in the relative comfort of the United Nations’ detention center at The Hague.
After more than a year of deliberations, the Special Court for Sierra Leone found Mr. Taylor guilty in late April of crimes against humanity and war crimes for his part in fomenting widespread brutality that included murder, rape, the use of child soldiers, the mutilation of thousands of civilians and the mining of diamonds to pay for guns and ammunition. Prosecutors have said that Mr. Taylor was motivated in these gruesome actions not by any ideology but rather by “pure avarice” and a thirst for power.
The United Nations-backed tribunal began it work in Sierra Leone, where it tried its other cases, but out of concern that hearings in West Africa would cause unrest among those who still support Mr. Taylor, his trial was moved to the Netherlands.
In Liberia, where Mr. Taylor began a civil war and amassed a record of human rights atrocities during his dictatorial rule, there has not been the political will or the resources to set up a tribunal. The mandate of the Special Court for Sierra Leone covers only crimes between 1996 and 2002, and because the tribunal is to be shut down, critics say that a number of people close to Mr. Taylor have escaped prosecution.
Witnesses who testified at the Taylor trial — which lasted more than twice as long as planned — included men whose hands had been chopped off and women who had been raped. Associates and aides of Mr. Taylor also testified. One aide described a secret bonding ritual in Liberia during which he and others joined Mr. Taylor in eating a human heart.
Diamonds, as well as atrocities, also came up repeatedly in the 2,500-page judgment. The judges agreed with the prosecution that diamonds mined in Sierra Leone were used to pay for arms and ammunition for Mr. Taylor’s proxy army, and that rough diamonds were delivered to Mr. Taylor’s house in Monrovia, the Liberian capital. One diamond story that received a lot of attention during the trial involved the court appearance of the model Naomi Campbell. Prosecutors said Ms. Campbell had been sent uncut diamonds as a gift from Mr. Taylor after they attended a charity dinner hosted by Nelson Mandela when he was the president of South Africa. Two of Ms. Campbell’s companions who recounted the episode in court — her agent, Carole White, and the actress Mia Farrow — were repeatedly called “liars” during cross-examination by the defense. But the judges wrote that the two women were “frank and truthful witnesses,” and contrasted them with Ms. Campbell. They called her a “reluctant witness” who “deliberately omitted certain details out of fear.” They added that Ms. Campbell “said she came to the realization that the diamonds were sent by Taylor.”
Eight other leading members of different forces and rebel groups have already been sentenced by the tribunal. Mr. Taylor is the special court’s last defendant. Since his trial began, 115 witnesses have testified.
The three-panel bench, made up of judges from Uganda, Samoa and Ireland, gave Mr. Taylor leeway during his defense. He spent seven months — covering 81 days of the trial — in the witness chair, telling his life story without ever being cut off for digressions or political statements. He said he had heard about atrocities — “that nobody on this planet would not have heard about the atrocities in Sierra Leone” — but that he would “never, ever” have permitted them.
Source: New York Times
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