Spotlight on War Crimes: Charles Taylor is Cross-Examined by Prosecution

Liberia's Former President Charles Taylor

The U.N. Special Court for Sierra Leone have begun their cross-examination of former Liberian President Charles Taylor. The former Liberian President is facing charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Charles Taylor happens to be the first witness in his defence and has spent much of the last 13 weeks dismissing the prosecution case against him as fabrication of lies. He ex-Liberian leader is pleading not guilty to an 11-count indictment that includes murder, rape, enslavement, and conscription of child soldiers.

The war crimes trial Prosecutors are saying Charles Gbankay Taylor led members of Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front across the border and acted as their effective leader for much of the country’s 10-year civil war.In his defence Taylor’s lawyers maintain that any contact their client had with Sierra Leonean rebels ended before the jurisdiction of the court begins. Questions were also raised about the legality of Charles Taylor’s being turned over to the court after he was granted political asylum in Nigeria.

According to Mr Taylor, the then Nigerian-President Olusegun Obasanjo approved of his traveling overland to Chad in 2006. But when Mr. Taylor reached the border, Obasanjo ordered his arrest for violating the terms of his asylum by trying to travel outside Nigeria without permission. He told the court, “I don’t care what happens, I hope I am alive to really look into Obasanjo’s face one day and ask him to tell the world the truth about what happened. With me I am Jewish. I do not hold any animosity. But I tell Obasanjo today, and I am sure he knows it, that he lied to the world when he said that I was escaping and he knew nothing about it. Why he lied I don’t know.

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