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Judge keeps grip on Taylor's trial

Liberians who can't afford to buy a newspaper gather to read the headlines about Charles Taylor's landmark international war crimes trial on newspapers laid on the ground for sale in Monrovia, Liberia, on Monday. The trial of the former Liberian president is the first such one against a former African leader. PHOTO: AP

Former Liberian president Charles Taylor refused to leave his jail cell, the defense attorney got up and walked out and an interpreter interrupted proceedings.

In the midst of the turmoil of the opening of Taylor's war crimes trial on Monday, presiding Judge Julia Sebutinde remained calm and showed flashes of anger and humor.

She initially threatened to hold Taylor's lawyer Karim Khan in contempt of court when he tried to walk out of court, saying Taylor had fired him and chastised Khan for interrupting her and disobeying her orders.

When Khan read a rambling letter from Taylor explaining his boycott, she urged him to get a move on.

"Are you able to tell the court a reason why, in a nutshell, in one minute, why your client is not in court?" she asked.

Eventually, she defused the impasse of whether Khan should stay by appointing another lawyer to represent Taylor. Khan immediately collected his papers and left.

"I am happy to see a woman judge presiding at the trial and I was very much impressed with the way she handled the arguments between the defense lawyer for Charles Taylor and the prosecutor," said Fatmata Kabbah, an official with the Council of Churches of Sierra Leone, who watched Monday's proceedings in Sierra Leone via a special satellite hookup.

Born in Uganda and trained as a lawyer in Britain, Sebutinde joined the Special Court for Sierra Leone from the Ugandan High Court.

Though the start of Taylor's trial on charges of controlling rebels who murdered, tortured, raped and pillaged in Sierra Leone's civil war thrust her into the international spotlight for the first time, Sebutinde already has plenty of experience at the UN-backed court.

She is one of three judges presiding over another case before the Sierra Leone war crimes tribunal, of three members of an ousted military junta that ruled during the 10-year civil war.

The junta -- the Armed Forces Ruling Council -- allied itself with Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front rebels, which was allegedly backed by Taylor.

A verdict is expected later this month for three leaders who were tried on charges that include murder, rape, terror, maiming, mutilation, enslavement, sexual slavery, forced marriage, looting, pillaging and conscripting child soldiers.

Throughout Monday and in pretrial hearings, Sebutinde has always striven to ensure Taylor is given a fair trial. On Monday she ordered a court official to be flown from Sierra Leone to talk with Taylor about his defense.

In between arguing with Khan, Sebutinde even had to deal with an interpreter who kept asking Khan to slow down.

"Interpreter, you are not in charge of this court," Sebutinde scolded, causing laughter in the packed public gallery.
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