Post date: Sep 26, 2013 1:50:55 PM
Appeals judges uphold the conviction of former Liberian President Charles Taylor, reaffirming the 50-year prison sentence he was given last year for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during Sierra Leone's civil war.
THE HAGUE, THE NETHERLANDS (SEPTEMBER 26, 2013)(SPECIAL COURT FOR SIERRA LEONE) - Appeals judges upheld the conviction of former Liberian President Charles Taylor on Thursday (September 26), reaffirming the 50-year prison sentence he was given last year for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during Sierra Leone's civil war.
Presiding judge George Gelaga King said Taylor had provided advice and encouragement to Revolutionary United Front and Armed Forces Revolutionary Council rebels, knowing full well the kinds of crimes they were committing.Taylor, 65, sat impassively throughout the reading of the judgement, rising at the end to hear his sentence. He was to be transferred from the seaside detention centre that has been his home since 2006 to a British maximum security prison.
Judges in the UN's Special Court for Sierra Leone last year convicted him on 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for aiding and abetting the rebels who murdered, raped and pillaged their way through Libya's neighbour Sierra Leone during an 11-year civil war which cost some 50,000 lives until 2002.