Former Liberian president Charles Taylor’s interim defence lawyer is in Sierra Leone to challenge attempts to move the warlord’s trial to The Hague, sources close to Taylor said on Tuesday.
Karim Khan arrived in Freetown late on Monday after filing an urgent application to the United Nations-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone to ask that no decision be made on the trial venue until the defence is allowed to comment on the issue.
The UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone, established in 2002, has requested that Taylor’s trial be moved to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague on security grounds.
Taylor is accused of sponsoring and aiding rebel groups who perpetrated murder, sexual slavery, mutilation and conscription of child soldiers in Sierra Leone’s brutal civil war in exchange for a share in the lucrative diamond trade.
This week the UN Security Council is expected to adopt a draft resolution clearing the way for Taylor, who has pleaded not guilty to crimes against humanity, to be tried in the Netherlands. If the trial moves, the under-funded Special Court has to be responsible for the cost of the transfer and upkeep of the accused, witnesses, judges and all court officials.
Khan argues that the court’s request is “premature and raises risk of the appearance of unfairness in that the accused has not been afforded the right to be heard on the important issue of venue”, according to the motion.
He wants the court to either withdraw its transfer request or allow the defence to be heard on the issue before a decision is reached. “It has not been judicially determined that such a change of venue is necessary in the interest of justice,” he said.
Khan said the court has not explained why Taylor should be tried elsewhere while other war-crimes suspects are being heard in Sierra Leone.
The court’s spokesperson, Peter Andersen, said it was unlikely the urgent motion would be heard soon since the court is on recess from April 10 to 24.
In his motion, Khan said the court has not shown that it is judicially necessary to change the venue of the trial.
Khan, appointed by the court last week to represent Taylor free of charge after the former Liberian president declared himself indigent, is based in London where he works for a British firm of barristers.
Once one of Africa’s most-feared warlords, Taylor is accused of inflicting some of the worst violence on civilians ever committed on the continent.
The 58-year-old former rebel chieftain is considered to be the single most powerful figure behind a series of civil wars in Liberia and neighbouring Sierra Leone between 1989 and 2003, which between them left about 400 000 people dead. — AFP