Prosecutors for Sierra Leone’s war crimes court are trying to track down -million they say vanished from two United States bank accounts held by former Liberian President Charles Taylor when he was forced from power in 2003. But lawyers defending the former warlord challenged prosecutors to produce evidence that Taylor had salted away state funds for his personal use.
Dozens of ex-combatants from Sierra Leone’s 10-year civil war gathered on Saturday for ”healing ceremonies” to make peace with victims of the brutal conflict that left thousands dead. ”Small-scale ceremonies have already been held in other parts in the district,” said Beatrice Allie, one of the coordinators of the project.
A witness calling himself Charles Taylor’s death squad commander told a court on Wednesday he killed men, women and babies on the former Liberian leader’s orders and supplied arms to rebels in Sierra Leone. Taylor, once one of Africa’s most feared warlords, faces charges of rape, murder, mutilation and recruitment of child soldiers.
A reverend who survived a massacre and was held captive by rebels in Sierra Leone testified on Tuesday in the trial of former Liberian president Charles Taylor about seeing killings, rapes and mutilations. Taylor is accused of arming, training and controlling the Revolutionary United Front rebels in Sierra Leone.
A blood-diamond expert and an account from a Sierra Leonean miner who said laughing rebels hacked off his hands and burned his family opened the war-crimes trial against Liberia’s Charles Taylor on Monday. The former Liberian president, once one of Africa’s most feared warlords, faces charges of rape, murder, mutilation and recruitment of child soldiers.
The war-crimes trial of former Liberian president Charles Taylor, accused of controlling militia that killed and raped thousands in Sierra Leone, resumed on Monday in The Hague after a six month delay. Taylor was present for the hearing in which the prosecution will call its first witness, an international expert on conflict diamonds.