This week, a witness for former Liberian president, Charles Taylor denied that Mr. Taylor supplied weapons to Sierra Leonean rebels, backing up information contained in a 1999 military report issued by the rebels. The same witness also rejected the idea that the rebels themselves raped, took “bush wives” or recruited child soldiers during the country’s [...]
Charles Taylor never ordered his rebel forces to commit crimes, and he was prevented from liberating the Liberian people by foreign countries who interfered in the country’s conflict, a defense witness told the Special Court for Sierra Leone this week. DCT 125, a protected witness testifying with face and voice distortion on Tuesday told the [...]
February
27
2010
Charles Taylor’s First Witnesses Starts His Testimony, Says Prosecution Witness Lied Against The Former Liberian President
The first witness for Charles Taylor started his testimony this week, telling Special Court for Sierra Leone judges that prosecution witnesses lied against the former Liberian president. On Monday, Yanks Smythe, a Gambiam national who was a member of Mr. Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) rebel group and who later acquired Liberian citizenship [...]
February
6
2010
Prosecutors Conclude The Cross-Examination Of Charles Taylor
Prosecutors this week concluded the cross-examination of former Liberian president Charles Taylor, asserting before Special Court for Sierra Leone judges that the former president persecuted human rights activists and suppressed press freedom in Liberia, that he executed politicians and rebel commanders who he saw as threats to his quest for political power, that he had ulterior [...]
Former Liberian President, Charles Taylor, this week denied knowledge of threats by a Sierra Leonean rebel commander to kill fellow citizens if the group’s leader was not released from jail during the country’s brutal civil conflict. Prosecutors dismissed his denial as impossible: Mr. Taylor had to have known about the threats, not only because he was anointed [...]
The trial of former Liberian president Charles Taylor got off to a slow start this week, as technical problems forced a two-day adjournment fresh on the heels of a month-long break. When court resumed on Thursday, prosecutors alleged that Mr. Taylor gave supermodel Naomi Campbell a rough-cut diamond that had been given to him by [...]
After debates over the use of “fresh evidence” threw the cross-examination of former Liberian President, Charles Taylor, into disarray in recent weeks, Special Court for Sierra Leone judges told prosecutors last Monday that they were in fact allowed to use new documents to test Mr. Taylor’s credibility. Any documents used to try to show Mr. [...]
