The Trial of Charles Taylor

Dear readers – please find below a monthy summary of the Taylor trial for May 2010 by our friends Jennifer Easterday and Elena Marrs at the UC Berkeley War Crimes Studies Center.  The views and opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Open Society Justice Initiative. 1. Overview Trial [...]

Charles Taylor Monthly Trial Report (April 1, 2010 – April 30, 2010)[1]  1.            Overview   The Defense case moved ahead steadily in April, with three new witnesses taking the stand for Charles Taylor. By the end of this reporting period, Taylor’s Defense team had called a total of eleven witnesses. Much of the testimony this [...]

Charles Taylor Monthly Trial Report (February 22, 2010 – March 31, 2010)[1]  1.      Overview   The Defense called its second witness, Yankuba Samateh, a.k.a. Yanks Smythe, on Monday February 22, 2010. By the second week of March, the Defense had increased the pace at which it was calling witnesses, with six witnesses completing testimony during this [...]

 Thanks to the U.C. Berkeley Monitoring Program, below is an extensive and detailed overview of Charles Taylor’s testimony as he took the stand in his own defense in his current trial before the Special Court for Sierra Leone.  This report, by Berkeley trial monitors, Kimberley Punt and Jennifer Easterday, covers Mr. Taylor’s direct testimony, where his [...]

After 205 days—or 41 full weeks—of court sessions, examination of the Prosecution’s 91st and final witness concluded on January 30, 2009. Prosecutor Stephen Rapp said his team had “achieved was [they] set out to do.”(1) Proceedings ran smoothly and efficiently in these final weeks. The Defendant missed a single day of trial on the last [...]

Proceedings began this month on November 3, at which time Witness TF1-168, who had been scheduled to testify, was unable to be present in The Hague.  In his place, the Prosecution’s next witness, Witness TF1-579, was presented to the Court.  The Prosecution and Defense, however, made a joint application to adjourn until the following Monday.  [...]

The trial against Charles Taylor rushed ahead in the month of October: the Prosecution called 32 witnesses in 17 days of trial, and the parties litigated several noteworthy  procedural issues. The witnesses (all crime-base, or victim, witnesses) provided harrowing testimony about mass atrocities they say they experienced or witnessed in Sierra Leone. Nearly half of [...]

Proceedings began in September with the cross examination of Witness TF1-367, a former Mining Commander in Kono.  The next witness to testify during this period was Witness TF1-338, a former member of the RUF.  Other witnesses included former RUF insiders, RUF radio operators, crime base victims, and former police officials.  An American professor also took [...]