Acting on a United Nation’s (UN) request, Switzerland has frozen two million Swiss francs (â,¬1,3 million, $1,5-million) in the bank accounts of two associates of Liberian President Charles Taylor, the Swiss justice ministry said on Wednesday.
The move followed a request by the UN-backed court investigating war crimes in Sierra Leone last month, which triggered a search of Swiss banks for any assets linked to the Liberian leader.
Taylor is accused by the Special Court for Sierra Leone of providing financial and military support to two rebel groups in Sierra Leone and of committing war crimes during the civil war there, the ministry said in a statement.
The Liberian leader, currently under pressure to step down as his forces battle rebels in the capital Monrovia, is said to have received uncut diamonds in return for his support to the fighters in neighbouring Sierra Leone.
Taylor has asked a Dutch lawyer to represent him before the tribunal, the lawyer said on Wednesday.
”Taylor has asked me to give him all the assistance necessary under the circumstances,” the lawyer, Michail Wladimiroff, said. He added that the request was made recently but would not elaborate.
Wladimiroff was one of three lawyers appointed to assist judges at the UN war crimes court in The Hague with the trial of former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugolavia court sacked him last October after he told a local newspaper that Milosevic would be found guilty if the trial ended right away.
The freeze in unidentified banks in Geneva and Zurich is temporary pending a decision from a Swiss federal prosecutor, the ministry added. – Sapa-AFP