Former Liberian president Charles Taylor has been assigned a new team of lawyers to defend him against war-crimes charges at a United Nations-backed court in The Hague, a court document revealed on Wednesday.
Taylor’s acting defence counsel “named Mr Courtenay Griffiths as chief lawyer for Mr Taylor, Mr Andrew Cayley as assistant lawyer and Mr Terry Munyard as assistant lawyer from July 17”, the document said.
Taylor (59), the first African head of state to stand trial before an international court for war crimes, had boycotted the opening of his trial and sacked his lawyer, arguing that he had no chance of receiving a fair trial.
The judges at the UN-backed Sierra Leone tribunal later ordered that a new defence team be put together and that the court’s registry make more money available for Taylor’s defence.
The former president’s main complaint was that he did not have enough money to attract the kind of top lawyers needed to defend him in such a long and complicated case.
The former president, once one of Africa’s most feared warlords, has pleaded not guilty to all 11 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder, rape and using child soldiers during the 1991 to 2001 civil war in Sierra Leone.
Up to 200Â 000 people were killed in the Sierra Leone conflict, with rebels mutilating thousands more, cutting off arms, legs, ears and noses.
Taylor allegedly armed, trained and controlled the Revolutionary United Front, responsible for many of the mutilations, in exchange for still-unknown amounts of diamonds used to fund warfare.
Taylor, who was president of Liberia from August 1997 before yielding to massive international pressure and stepping down in August 2003, has denied all the charges.
The Special Court for Sierra Leone moved the trial to The Hague following fears expressed by the Liberian government that a trial in Freetown, the official seat of the court, would cause unrest in the region. — AFP