Former Liberian president Charles Taylor was flown from Freetown on Tuesday to The Netherlands where he will stand trial for war crimes allegedly committed during Sierra Leone’s brutal civil war, court and government officials told Agence France-Presse.
”He left at 9.35am [local time],” an official said after three helicopters were seen hovering around the United Nations-backed special court compound where Taylor has been held since March.
”I can confirm he was flown out this morning to The Hague,” President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah’s spokesperson Kanji Daramy told AFP in Dakar by telephone from Freetown.
”This follows the pronouncement by Britain that it will provide a prison for Mr Taylor should he be found guilty for crimes for which he stands accused,” Daramy said.
Taylor (58), once one of Africa’s most-feared warlords, has been indicted by the special court on charges of crimes against humanity, war crimes and violations of international human rights.
He is seen as the single most powerful figure behind a series of civil wars in Liberia and neighbouring Sierra Leone between 1989 and 2003, which left about 400 000 people dead.
He is specifically accused of sponsoring and aiding rebel groups who perpetrated murder, sexual slavery, mutilation and conscription of child soldiers in Sierra Leone’s civil war in exchange for a share in the lucrative diamond trade.
The UN Security Council last week approved his transfer to The Netherlands, where he will be tried by a branch of the Sierra Leonean special court, which will sit in the facilities of the International Criminal Court. — AFP
