Judges at an international war crimes court yesterday sentenced former Liberian president Charles Taylor to 50 years in prison, saying he was responsible for “some of the most heinous and brutal crimes recorded in human history.”
The 64-year-old warlord-turned-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, are expected to appeal his convictions and that will likely keep him in a jail in The Hague, Netherlands, for months.
Photo: EPA
Taylor was convicted last month on 11 charges of aiding and abetting the rebels who went on a savage rampage during the decade-long war that ended in 2002 with more than 50,000 dead.
Prosecutors say he funneled arms, ammunition and other supplies in return for “blood diamonds” mined using slave labor.
Presiding Judge Richard Lussick told Taylor his crimes were of the “utmost gravity in terms of scale and brutality.”
“The lives of many more innocent civilians in Sierra Leone were lost or destroyed as a direct result of his actions,” Lussick said.
Taylor showed no emotion as Lussick handed down what will effectively be a life sentence.
Prosecutors had asked judges at the Special Court for Sierra Leone to impose an 80-year sentence; Taylor’s lawyers urged judges to hand down a sentence that offered him some hope of release before he dies.
Lussick said an 80-year sentence would have been excessive as Taylor was convicted of aiding and abetting crimes and not direct involvement.
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