Taylor won't get death penalty

2006-03-30 13:55

Freetown - Ex-Liberian President Charles Taylor faces a possible life term, but not the death penalty, if he is convicted of war crimes by an international court in what could be a long trial, the chief prosecutor said on Thursday.

Desmond de Silva said the former warlord could make his first appearance by Friday before a judge of the United Nations-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone where he was flown on Wednesday.

He will be asked to plead guilty or not guilty to the 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including mutilations and sexual slavery, with which he is charged.

He is accused of receiving diamonds in exchange for supporting Sierra Leone rebels who often hacked off the limbs of their victims or raped them.

The charges stem from Sierra Leone's 1991-2002 civil war, one of a web of brutal regional conflicts in West Africa that shocked the world with graphic images of gratuitous killings and mutilations by drugged-up child soldiers.

Escapologist

If, as expected, Taylor pleads not guilty, the prosecution and defence would prepare for trial. "On the basis of what has happened with regard to other defendants, the trial is many months away," de Silva told Reuters by telephone.

Taylor, 58, was taken into UN custody on Wednesday when Nigeria deported him after he made a brief abortive run for freedom from his exile home.

Exile in Nigeria, part of a 2003 peace deal for Liberia, had kept him out of the reach of the Sierra Leone court for nearly three years.

De Silva said Taylor would be tried under international criminal law, which forbids the death penalty, but can mean convicted war criminals spend the rest of their lives behind bars.

"It depends on how long he lives ... in international criminal courts people can be sentenced to 10, 20, 30, 40 years or indeed for the rest of their natural lives," he said.

Reinforced guard

World leaders, including UN chief Kofi Annan and United States President George W Bush, hailed Taylor's swift delivery to the Sierra Leone court on Wednesday as a triumph of justice.

This was a relief for Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo who had been at a loss to explain how Taylor - described by de Silva as "something of an escapologist" - had managed to slip away late on Monday from his exile home in the southeastern Nigerian town of Calabar.

Nigerian police caught up with him early on Wednesday, more than 1 500km away, when he tried to drive over the border into Cameroon with a trunkful of dollars.

De Silva said a contingent of Irish UN rapid reaction troops were being brought in from Liberia to reinforce security around the Special Court compound in Freetown where Taylor was being held since late Wednesday in a special cell by himself.

- Reuters