Taylor tries to block TRC

2006-10-23 21:03

Monrovia - Lawyers for ex-president Charles Taylor have petitioned Liberia's supreme court to prohibit the nation's truth commission from hearing testimony or evidence regarding the ex-rebel leader's alleged crimes, said officials on Monday.

Taylor is awaiting trial at The Hague, Netherlands, on war crimes charges.

The truth commission, modelled after a similar body in South Africa, is investigating crimes and gross human rights abuses committed in Liberia during the last quarter century. The commission will make recommendations to the government on who should be granted reparations, receive amnesty or face prosecution.

The lawyers' petition called on the court to issue an interdict of prohibition against any evidence or testimony produced before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) on the grounds that Taylor was not present to defend himself. They also argue it could affect the outcome of the Hague trial.

Truth commission officials said they had not received any official communication from the court on the matter and therefore would not comment.

Liberia struggling to recover

Taylor's name was mentioned before the commission October 15 when a former combatant, 28-year-old Mohammed Sheriff, alleged Taylor ordered him and a group of former Taylor fighters to carry out a series of killings.

The lawyers' petition asks, "that all such evidences be declared nonexistent and expunged and obstructed from the records".

"These kinds of lies and publications certainly do have legal capacities to effect the petitioner's ongoing trial in The Hague," said the petition.

Supreme court Judge Francis Korkpor confirmed the petition has been filed to the court and was being read "to see whether there is a ground" to grant the request.

The truth commission began taking testimony for the first time earlier this month.

Liberia is struggling to recover from years of instability that began with a 1980 coup.

Rebels led by Taylor invaded in 1989, plunging the country into years of bloody civil war that left hundreds of thousands dead.

'Hearings will help knit country back together'

The former warlord won elections that handed him the presidency in 1997. Rebels took up arms and ousted him three years later, and Taylor fled to Nigeria in 2003.

Taylor was detained earlier this year and is awaiting trial at The Hague for his role in war crimes committed in neighbouring Sierra Leone during that country's brutal 10-year civil war. He has pleaded innocent to allegations that he oversaw the murder, rape and mutilation of thousands.

Taylor has not been charged in Liberia.

President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has said the commission's hearings will help knit the country back together. Sirleaf took office in January after winning the country's first post-war ballot by a landslide.

- SAPA