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Former Liberia President Charles Taylor sentenced to 50 years
Former Liberia President.,Charles Taylor.PHOTO/File
International judges sentenced former Liberian President Charles Taylor to 50 years in prison Wednesday, saying he was responsible for “some of the most heinous and brutal crimes recorded in human history” by arming and supporting Sierra Leone rebels in return for “blood diamonds.”
The 64-year-old former president is the first former head of state convicted by an international war crimes court since World War II and judges said they had no precedent when deciding his sentence.
Taylor will serve his sentence in a British jail. His lawyers, however, said they will appeal his convictions and that will likely keep him in a jail in The Hague, Netherlands, for months.
Prosecutor Brenda Hollis also said she was considering an appeal.
“It is important in our view that those responsible for criminal misconduct on a massive scale are not given a volume discount,” Hollis said.
The Special Court for Sierra Leone convicted Taylor last month on 11 charges of aiding and abetting the rebels who went on a brutal rampage during that country’s decade-long war that ended in 2002 with more than 50,000 dead.
At a small protest outside the court, one man held up a hand-written placard proclaiming: “Blood diamonds are not forever. They come at a cost Taylor.”
