Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said on Friday that Monrovia had no intention, nor is it required, to pay the legal fees of indicted war crimes suspect Charles Taylor.
The former Liberian leader is standing trial at the United Nations-backed war crimes court in Sierra Leone on 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the decade-long Sierra Leone conflict.
His defence will have to come from himself as well as the United Nations, Johnson-Sirleaf said in her regular monthly radio programme, Conversation with the President.
She said she has received a letter from Taylor’s lawyers requesting clarification on payment of legal fees. The clarification follows persistent news reports that the Liberian government was considering underwriting the legal fees of former president Taylor when his trial commences at the UN-backed war crimes court.
Meanwhile Johnson-Sirleaf said she was neither afraid nor perturbed by the United States State Department’s recent advisory warning its citizens not to travel to Liberia for security reasons.
She said the advisory may have been prompted by the recent protest action by ex-soldiers of the disbanded Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL).
She expressed optimism that the next US State department advisory on Liberia would be positive, the source quoted her as saying. – Sapa-DPA