Charles Taylor To Serve 50-Year Jail Sentence In The UK

Ex-Liberian President Charles Taylor is to serve his 50-year
war crimes sentence in the UK, Justice Minister Jeremy
Wright has confirmed. Mr Wright made the announcement
in a written statement to Parliament, saying it followed a
request from the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL).
Finland, Rwanda and Sweden were other possibilities
following the rejection of his appeal last month by a UN-
backed special court in The Hague.
He was sentenced in May 2012 for aiding rebels who
committed atrocities in Sierra Leone during its civil war.
Because of fears his trial could spark renewed conflict in
West Africa, it was moved from Sierra Leone to The
Hague, and the UK at the time offered to jail him if
convicted.
The SCSL found Taylor, 65, guilty of 11 crimes including
terrorism, rape, murder and the use of child soldiers by
rebel groups in neighbouring Sierra Leone during the
1991-2002 conflict in which some 50,000 people died. He
was found to have supplied weapons to the Revolutionary
United Front (RUF) rebels in exchange for a constant flow
of so-called blood diamonds.
The rebels were notorious for hacking off the limbs of
civilians to terrorise the population.
Taylor has always insisted he is innocent and his only
contact with the rebels was to urge them to stop fighting.
He is the first former head of state convicted by an
international war crimes court since World War II.