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Charles Taylor to reject call for 80-year sentence
Source: Reuters
Taylor to reject call for 80-year sentence
By Thomas Escritt and Sara Webb
AMSTERDAM | Tue May 15, 2012 6:37pm EDT
(Reuters) - Former Liberian President Charles Taylor will on Wednesday tell judges he bears no responsibility for atrocities during Sierra Leone's 11-year civil war, rejecting the prosecution's demand for an 80-year sentence in a maximum-security British jail.
Taylor, convicted last month of aiding and abetting crimes against humanity in Sierra Leone's conflict, is the first head of state to be found guilty by an international tribunal since the Nazi trials at Nuremberg.
His trial caught the public's attention with its grisly mix of massacres and mutilations committed by drugged child soldiers, and the notorious "blood diamonds" or uncut stones from the conflict zones which supermodel Naomi Campbell described as "dirty little pebbles" when she testified in court.
Taylor and his defense lawyers have characterized the case as a racist sham and a Western conspiracy, led by the United Kingdom and the United States, against black Africans.
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By Thomas Escritt and Sara Webb
AMSTERDAM | Tue May 15, 2012 6:37pm EDT
(Reuters) - Former Liberian President Charles Taylor will on Wednesday tell judges he bears no responsibility for atrocities during Sierra Leone's 11-year civil war, rejecting the prosecution's demand for an 80-year sentence in a maximum-security British jail.
Taylor, convicted last month of aiding and abetting crimes against humanity in Sierra Leone's conflict, is the first head of state to be found guilty by an international tribunal since the Nazi trials at Nuremberg.
His trial caught the public's attention with its grisly mix of massacres and mutilations committed by drugged child soldiers, and the notorious "blood diamonds" or uncut stones from the conflict zones which supermodel Naomi Campbell described as "dirty little pebbles" when she testified in court.
Taylor and his defense lawyers have characterized the case as a racist sham and a Western conspiracy, led by the United Kingdom and the United States, against black Africans.
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/15/us-warcrimes-taylor-idUSBRE84E1J520120515
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