Taylor trial: Key witness 'lied'

2008-01-15 10:19

The Hague - Charles Taylor's defence attorney accused a key prosecution witness at the Liberian ex-president's war crimes trial on Monday of falsely portraying himself as a close Taylor aide and of concocting evidence so prosecutors would keep paying his expenses.

"I am suggesting to you that you inflated your role in order to lend a false credibility to your evidence," Courtenay Griffiths said as he completed more than two days of cross examination of former Taylor bodyguard Varmuyan Sherif.

"That is not true," Sherif calmly replied.

Sherif testified last week that Taylor breached a United Nations arms embargo to smuggle guns and ammunition to rebels in Sierra Leone during that country's brutal 10-year civil war, sometimes shipping weapons in rice sacks to avoid detection.

Taylor pleads not guilty

He also called Taylor, the "father of the RUF," an acronym for the Revolutionary United Front, a Sierra Leone militia notorious for terrorising civilians by chopping off limbs and decapitating the corpses of its enemies.

Both claims underpinned allegations that Taylor armed and supported Sierra Leone rebels while he was president of neighbouring Liberia. He had pleaded not guilty to 11 charges including murder, rape and organising a campaign of terror.

Sherif was the first of nearly 60 witnesses from Taylor's inner circle the prosecution planned to call.

Griffiths said last week that Sherif was not as close to Taylor as the witness claimed and that his responsibilities were mainly to ensure that cars in Taylor's motorcade had air in their tires and fuel in their tanks.

Sherif also testified last week that he saw RUF leader Sam Bockarie smuggle a mayonnaise jar full of diamonds into Liberia ahead of a meeting Bockarie had with Taylor in 1998. Prosecutors said that Taylor sold diamonds and used the proceeds to arm rebels, earning them the name "blood diamonds".

'Blood diamonds'

Griffiths said Sherif only began telling investigators for the Special Court for Sierra Leone about diamonds after they expressed interest in the subject.

He said: "You told them what they wanted to hear in exchange for money after they told you in 'off the record' conversations that they wanted to hear about blood diamonds."

"That's not true," Sherif replied.

"You're in it for the money, aren't you Mr Sherif?" Griffiths added, after reading a list of payments in United States dollars and local Sierra Leone currency made to Sherif by investigators.

Sherif said the payments were made to cover expenses as he tried to track down other witnesses and payments made to him and his family after threats forced them to leave Liberia.

Last week, as Taylor's trial resumed after a six-month interruption, a Sierra Leonean clergyman and teacher described in harrowing detail the massacre and decapitation of 101 men and the dismemberment of a child soldier.

- AP