UN chopper picks up Taylor
2006-03-29 19:31
Monrovia - Former Liberian president and war crimes suspect Charles Taylor, captured in Nigeria, arrived in Liberia on Wednesday under tight security and immediately boarded a United Nations helicopter expected to take him to Sierra Leone, AFP correspondents at the airport said.
Taylor, a warlord turned president who had fled to exile in Nigeria, has been indicted by the UN-backed special court for Sierra Leone for crimes against humanity committed during a 1991-2001 civil war there that claimed up to 200 000 lives.
A Nigerian presidential jet landed at the tightly guarded Roberts International Airport in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, shortly after 16:30 (16:30 GMT) and was immediately surrounded by UN security forces.
He disembarked and was led to a waiting helicopter bearing a UN logo.
The UN announced earlier on Wednesday that it was ready to arrest Taylor on his arrival in Liberia and transfer him to the special court in neighbouring Sierra Leone.
Taylor was flown to Monrovia from Nigeria's northeastern town of Maiduguri, after he was captured early on Wednesday trying to flee the country following the Nigerian government's decision to extradite him.
- AFP