Former Liberian President Charles Taylor has been convicted of arming rebels in Sierra Leone in exchange for blood diamonds during the decade-old war that began in 1991. (AP)
By AL ARABIYA WITH AFP
Liberian ex-president Charles Taylor was convicted on Thursday of war crimes for arming Sierra Leone's rebels in return for blood diamonds during the 1991-2001 civil war.
“The trial chamber finds you guilty of aiding and abetting of all these crimes,” presiding judge Richard Lussick told the Special Court for Sierra Leone in the first verdict against a former head of state by a world court since the Nuremberg trials.
"The sentence will be pronounced on May 30th at 11.00 am (0900 GMT)," presiding judge Lussick said shortly after delivering the guilty verdict.
Charles Taylor will serve his prison sentence in Britain, a Foreign Office spokeswoman said.
The location and category of the prison will depend on the details of the verdict. “How strong the verdict is will determine the category of prison he is held in,” the spokeswoman told AFP.
She added that Britain’s offered in 2007 to host Taylor if he was found guilty was part of the deal to put him on trial in the Netherlands-based Special Court for Sierra Leone.
“It is also part of the role that Britain played in bringing peace to Sierra Leone and to develop those bilateral relations,” the spokeswoman said.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair sent troops back then to Sierra Leone at the height of its brutal 1991-2001 civil war.
The international court opened its judgment hearing on Thursday for Liberian ex-president Charles Taylor, accused of arming Sierra Leone’s rebels who paid him in “blood diamonds”.
Dressed in a dark suit and white shirt and red tie, Taylor listened attentively and made notes as judge Richard Lussick started reading a summary of the verdict- the first ever against a former head of state by an international court - at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, based in Leidschendam outside The Hague.
Taylor, 64, is accused of helping Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels wage a terror campaign during a civil war that claimed 120,000 lives between 1991 and 2001.
His trial, which saw model Naomi Campbell testify she had received diamonds from the flamboyant Taylor and gruesome testimony from victims, wrapped up in March 2011.
Nigerian authorities arrested Taylor in March 2006 when he tried to flee from exile in Nigeria after stepping down as Liberian president three years earlier in a negotiated end to a civil war in his own country.
He was transferred to the SCSL in Freetown, but in June 2006 a UN Security Council resolution cleared the way for him to be transferred to The Hague, saying his presence in West Africa was an “impediment to stability and a threat to the peace.”