Charles Taylor found guilty of 'aiding and abetting' war crimes

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: Daily Telegraph

An international court has delivered its verdict on Liberian ex-president Charles Taylor, finding him guilty of arming Sierra Leone's rebels who paid him in "blood diamonds". But he was acquitted of criminal responsibility and "joint enterpise". His sentence will not be delivered for several months.

• Taylor guilty of aiding and abetting Sierra Leone's RUF
• People gather in Freetown to hear verdict
• Former Liberian president dismissed charges as 'lies'
• Taylor faces life in British prison cell

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/liberia/9228266/Charles-Taylor-found-guilty-of-aiding-and-abetting-war-crimes.html

---

It's been a long and complicated verdict. The judges found that many war crimes were committed, but they have not tied Taylor to many of them definitively. So the sentence may not end up being life - I think an international law expert would need to expound on that.

Other sources, constantly updating:

BBC: So far he has been cleared of charges of ordering war crimes, and of joint conspiracy in them.

Guardian:

11.56am: Taylor is guilty of "aiding and abetting" war crimes in Sierra Leone, the judge says.
...
Taylor found guilty of aiding and abetting RUF rebels in Sierra Leone in their reign of terror.

11.42am: The first verdicts are in: the prosecution has not proved that Taylor was individually responsible for some of the crimes committed in Sierra Leone.

Owen has more:

Court found that Taylor had significant influence over the RUF and gave them advice and support but he did not have command over them. Nor did he work with them in a common joint enterprise.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2012/apr/26/charles-taylor-trial-verdict-live

[Archae]

1. There goes Pat Robertson's crony.

[Warren Stupidity]

2. That's CIA asset Charles Taylor.

Funny how that part of his resume always falls below the fold.

[dotymed]

4. Isn't it though?

If the truth were allowed to be told, Taylor, along with the CIA and their boss would be seen for the jackals they are. Of course, they have a different set of laws that allows them to kill, steal, rape and profit from their sociopathy. They would not be prosecuted. Maybe held up as positive examples of how you can indulge your every sick impulse, as long as you obey TPTB. We must change this paradigm.

[Octafish]

3. NPR was just yabbing about this and they didn't mention Pass the Loot Pat or CIA...

...at all. One expert did mention he wished Mr. Taylor would face trial in Liberia for all the things he did at home.

[Crowman1979]

5. Let's throw Pat Robertson in a cell with him!

How about a citizen's arrest on Pat Robertson? Who's with me?

[Judi Lynn]

6. Warlord Convicted: Liberia's Charles Taylor Found Guilty of War Crimes

Warlord Convicted: Liberia's Charles Taylor Found Guilty of War Crimes
By Leo CendrowiczThursday, Apr. 26, 2012

Once the commanding and charismatic warlord, Charles Taylor cut a distant, bewildered, even pathetic figure in the courtroom on Thursday as he listened to the verdict in his landmark trial by a U.N.-backed tribunal in The Hague. Taylor, the former Liberian president, was unanimously found guilty of sponsoring murderous rebel groups in neighboring Sierra Leone's civil war and orchestrating a macabre catalogue of war crimes in the volatile West African region. As the chief justice at the Special Court for Sierra Leone delivered his verdict, the 64-year-old Taylor blinked nervously and seemed lost. He tried to speak afterwards, but his microphone was cut off and his appeals were ignored as the justices filed out of the courtroom.

The somber finale to Taylor's trial in the windowless courtroom on the outskirts of the Dutch capital marked a dramatic turnaround for the man who once reigned supreme in tropical jungles half a world away. It also represented a symbolic moment for Liberia and Sierra Leone as they come to terms with the legacy of his bloody campaigns in the 1990s. And as the first international court conviction of a national leader since the Nuremberg trials at the end of World War II, the verdict sent a signal to other world dictators that their misdeeds can catch up with them.

In the Sierra Leone capital of Freetown, where officials had set up special viewing sites for people to watch the verdict live, there was cheering and hugging when Taylor's conviction was announced. "It is a significant day, a momentous moment," says Comfort Ero, the Africa Program Director for the conflict resolution think tank International Crisis Group (ICG). "There is a sense of elation, but also poignancy. After many years of waiting patiently for the outcome, we have now seen some justice. It is a warning to those responsible for atrocities that will be accountable." She added, however, that the relief and vindication in Sierra Leone was not shared in Liberia, where Taylor is still popular, and many of his lieutenants still serve in public office. "There still needs to be a judgment for the others involved in crimes from that era," Ero says.

It's been more than two decades since Taylor seized power in Liberia, and nine years since he was toppled, but he still stands out as a uniquely wicked warlord. The court charged him with 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his involvement in Sierra Leone's civil war between 1991 and 2002, including murder, rape, mutilation, sexual slavery and conscripting child soldiers. Joseph Kony may have gotten the world's attention for his underage militia in Uganda thanks to the Kony2012 video released on YouTube this spring, but it was Taylor who pioneered the practice.

More:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2113215,00.html#ixzz1tANbwYWl

[gratuitous]

7. The usual good news for the U.S.

Like Mr. Taylor, the United States doesn't recognize this court or its legitimacy to try, convict or sentence any of our citizens. So, any war crimes or crimes against humanity alleged against one of our exceptionally exceptional citizens (up to and including high government officials equivalent to Mr. Taylor) aren't subject to all this lookin' backwards to the past.