The trial of Charles Taylor sitting in The Hague was adjourned on Monday morning and will resume on Tuesday as the former Liberian president was absent in court today. When court resumed this morning, Mr. Taylor was conspicuously absent for reasons that were not discussed in public. Mr. Taylor’s defense counsel, Courtenay Griffiths, asked that the court be put into closed [...]
When a defense witness said that Liberian rebel forces killed a wounded Prisoner of War (POW) because he was still considered an enemy soldier, judges in the trial of former Liberian President took a keen interest today. (It is against international law to execute prisoners of war who have laid down their arms and who [...]
In an effort to bolster Charles Taylor’s defense argument that he was a peacemaker who wanted the best for the Liberia people, today’s witness said Mr. Taylor strove to liberate the people of Nimba County in Liberia after they had been persecuted by then Liberian president Samuel K. Doe. Today’s witness — Teman Edward Zammy, [...]
Reports that Liberian rebel forces loyal to Charles Taylor mistreated civilians during the country’s civil conflict are wrong, said a defense witness for the former Liberian president today at the Special Court for Sierra Leone. Karnah Ebward Mineh, a former Liberian rebel commander, said his country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) report, released in December [...]
Claims that Liberian rebel forces displayed human skulls and intestines at checkpoints to terrorize or scare civilians are false, Charles Taylor’s defense witness told Special Court for Sierra Leone judges today in The Hague. Karnah Edward Mineh, a rebel commander for the former Liberian president, today told the court that one of his former colleagues [...]
The Liberian nationals who became part of the Sierra Leone rebel group that waged an 11-year rebel war in the West African country were neither sent to Sierra Leone by Mr. Taylor nor did they communicate with the former Liberian president while they were there, and the renegade rebel group Black Ghadaffa from Liberia, which later [...]
Some commanders in Charles Taylor’s Liberian rebel movement formed a renegade group to undermine the revolution and overthrow Mr. Taylor, a defense witness told the Special Court for Sierra Leone today. This testimony sits in tension with prosecution allegations that the Black Ghadafa group was set up by the former Liberian president, who then sent [...]
April
28
2010
Charles Taylor Refuses To Go To Court In Protest Against Treatment By Dutch Security Personnel
Charles Taylor today refused to attend his trial in protest of security measures by Dutch security personnel responsible for taking him from his detention facility to the courtroom in The Hague. When the Special Court for Sierra Leone resumed this morning, Mr. Taylor was conspiciously absent. The former Liberian president’s defense counsel, Morris Anyah, explained to the [...]
Stories of Sierra Leone’s rebel leader recruiting his fighters from jail cells under the control of Mr. Taylor’s rebel forces in Liberia are false, a defense witness told the Special Court for Sierra Leone today. Martin Flomo George, a Liberian national and former Brigade Commander for Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel forces, today questioned accounts that [...]
Liberians who formed part of Sierra Leone’s rebel forces that wreaked havoc in the war-torn West African country were not members of Charles Taylor’s own rebel group and had no communications with the former Liberian president, a defense witness said today. Martin Flomo George, a Liberian national and former Brigade Commander for the Sierra Leonean [...]
