Taylor is sentenced to 50 years
The former president of Liberia probably will spend the rest of his life in prison.
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Former Liberian President Charles Taylor probably will spend the rest of his life in prison after a U.N.-backed court in The Hague sentenced him to 50 years for aiding and abetting war crimes.
Taylor, 64, is the first former head of state to be convicted by an international court on war crimes charges since World War II.
He was found guilty of helping plan war crimes with Revolutionary United Front rebels in Sierra Leone, trading arms with them in return for so-called blood diamonds.
During their 1991-2002 reign of terror, the rebels were known for amputating limbs, recruiting and using child soldiers and raping women and girls, forcing many to become sex slaves.
Taylor was convicted last month on 11 counts, including terrorism, murder, rape, sexual slavery, outrages on personal dignity, conscripting child soldiers, enslavement and pillage. He will serve his prison term in Britain.
Pronouncing sentence in the Special Court for Sierra Leone in The Hague, Judge Richard Lussick said Taylor had never set foot in Sierra Leone but had left a heavy footprint there. He said the effect of Taylor’s crimes on families of the victims was devastating.
“The accused has been found responsible for aiding and abetting, as well as planning, some of the most heinous and brutal crimes recorded in human history,” the judge said.
Lussick said the court found when weighing its sentence that Taylor’s abuse of his positions as Liberia’s president and a leader of the regional Economic Community of West African States was “an aggravating factor of great weight.”
Another aggravating factor was his abuse of Sierra Leone for financial gain.
Lussick said that though convictions for aiding and abetting in crimes generally warranted shorter prison terms, this was not the case for Taylor, whose leadership role “puts him in a class of his own.”
Prosecutors had sought an 80-year sentence to reflect the central role Taylor played in the Sierra Leone conflict; his lawyers rejected claims that he had played a strong part and requested a proportionate sentence.
Courtenay Griffiths, one of the defense attorneys, said the sentence in effect meant that Taylor would die in prison.
His legal team plans to appeal the sentence as excessive.
Chief of the prosecution team, Brenda Hollis, told reporters that the prosecution also would study the judgment and decide whether to mount an appeal. She said the sentence brought some measure of justice “for those lucky enough to survive.”
“The sentence today does not replace amputated limbs, does not bring back those who have been murdered or forced to become sexual slaves,” Hollis said.
Taylor’s conviction has been hailed by human rights groups as a sign that heads of state cannot escape prosecution for crimes against humanity. However, many rights groups have called for his prosecution for alleged crimes in Liberia.
Addressing the court this month, Taylor said that he had acted with honor in Sierra Leone and that he had helped end the civil war. “What I did was done with honor,” he said. “I was convinced that unless there was peace in Sierra Leone, Liberia would not be able to move forward.”
He did not address the court Wednesday.
Taylor stepped down as Liberian leader in 2003 as rebels opposing him pounded the capital, Monrovia. He was granted amnesty in Nigeria, but was arrested trying to flee the country in 2006 after Liberian authorities requested his transfer to the Special Court for Sierra Leone.
He was sent to be tried at The Hague out of fear that a trial in the Sierra Leone capital, Freetown, could destabilize the nation.