Politics
Former Liberia President Charles Taylor appeals war crimes conviction
Former Liberia President.,Charles Taylor.PHOTO/File
Prosecutors urged judges Tuesday to reject former Liberian President Charles Taylor’s appeal against his war crimes conviction and 50-year prison sentence, saying the court should hold “lords of war” as responsible for atrocities as the machine gun-wielding killers they support.
Taylor was found guilty in April 2012 of aiding and abetting Sierra Leone rebels, becoming the first former head of state since World War II to be convicted by an international war crimes court. He was convicted of 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, rape, torture and the use of child soldiers.
But as Taylor watched silently from his seat in the courtroom Tuesday, one of his lawyers, Christopher Gosnell, said judges at his trial had a “deep and fundamental” misunderstanding of the legal notion of “aiding and abetting.”
He compared Taylor’s actions with those of other governments that provide support to rebel groups, saying Taylor “had no criminal intent” in aiding armed groups in Sierra Leone. Another of his lawyers, Eugene O’Sullivan, called Taylor’s sentence “manifestly excessive.”
Taylor’s defense lawyers have put forward 45 grounds to appeal his conviction and sentence, alleging that trial judges made dozens of factual and legal errors. Prosecutors in turn argued he should have been convicted not just of aiding and abetting rebels, but of ordering or instigating their crimes — considered more serious.
From his presidential palace in Liberia, Taylor provided arms, ammunition and other support to rebels responsible for murdering and mutilating their enemies in Sierra Leone’s decade-long civil war that ended in 2002 with some 50,000 dead. In return, the rebels paid him in so-called “blood diamonds” mined by slave labor in Sierra Leone and Taylor gained influence in the volatile west African region.
Taylor claimed he was only trying to help stabilize the war-torn country, but trial judges rejected that argument.
