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. [...]
November
1
2008
Trial Report: October 2008
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 [...]
October
1
2008
Trial Report: September 2008
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 [...]
September
1
2008
Trial Report: August 2008
Following the Court’s scheduled summer recess from July 21 to August 18, the trial of Charles Taylor got off to a slow start. The accused refused to appear in Court for the first two days of trial, in protest of heightened security measures imposed on Mr. Taylor at the detention facility by the Dutch prison [...]
August
1
2008
Trial Report: July 2008
Proceedings began on July 2, 2008 with the testimony of TF1-567 and went into recess until August after the dismissal of TFI-388, Jaward Jabati, on July 18, 2008. The court heard from two witnesses during this reporting period for a total of 35 witnesses to date in the case against Charles Taylor. The witnesses testified [...]
June
27
2008
Trial Report: May 1-June 2, ’08
Proceedings started late in May due to Dutch holidays and were cut short one week with a court break. Following the evidence of three insider witnesses during the month of April, the trial against Charles Taylor continued in May with the testimony of a former child soldier followed by evidence from a victim of sexual [...]
June
17
2008
Trial Report: May 2008
A new trial report summarizing prosecution and defense strategies, legal issues and witness testimony for the period May 5 – May 22, 2008 can be found [pdf] here.
May
9
2008
Trial Report: April 2008
We’ve posted a new trial report summarizing prosecution and defense strategies, legal issues and witness testimony for the period March 31 – April 30, 2008 here.
April
11
2008
Trial Report: Feb.-March 2008
We have posted a new trial report summarizing prosecution and defense strategies, legal issues and witness testimony for the trial period of February 4 – March 14, 2008. The report can be found [pdf] here.
February
5
2008
Trial Reports
We will periodically post Trial Reports. These will provide condensed summaries of witness testimony, identify Prosecution and Defense themes and strategies, and analyze procedural and substantive legal developments. Our first report covers the past month and is posted [pdf] here.
