News
Former Liberia President Charles Taylor sentenced to 50 years
“The special status of Mr. Taylor as a head of state puts him in a different category of offenders for the purpose of sentencing,” Lussick said.
Taylor’s lead attorney, Courtenay Griffiths, warned that the court’s refusal to take into account Taylor’s decision to step down from power following his indictment in 2003 when setting his sentence sent a worrying message against the backdrop of ongoing atrocities allegedly being committed by Syrian government forces.
“What lesson does that send to President Assad?” Griffiths said. “Maybe the lesson is: If you are a sitting leader and the international community wants to get rid of you either you get murdered like Col. Gadhafi, or you hang on until the bitter end. I’m not so sure that’s the signal this court ought to be transmitting at this particular historical juncture.”
At a sentencing hearing earlier this month, Taylor expressed “deepest sympathy” for the suffering of victims of atrocities in Sierra Leone, but insisted he had acted to help stabilize the West Africa region and claimed he never knowingly assisted in the commission of crimes.
“What I did…was done with honor,” he said. “I was convinced that unless there was peace in Sierra Leone, Liberia would not be able to move forward.”
Judges rejected that argument, saying that while he posed as a peacemaker he was covertly funning the flames of conflict by arming rebels in full knowledge they would likely use weapons to commit terrible crimes.
Prosecutors said there was no reason for leniency, given the extreme nature of the crimes, Taylor’s “greed” and misuse of his position of power.
