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Ex-liberian president charles taylor sentenced to 50 years inprison by efvf thbtn
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Ex-liberian president charles taylor sentenced to 50 years inprison by EFVF THBTN
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| Article Posted: 12/06/2013 |
| Article Views: 104 |
| Articles Written: 1207 - MORE ARTICLES FROM THIS AUTHOR |
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Ex-liberian president charles taylor sentenced to 50 years inprison |
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The 64-year-old warlord-turned-president is the first former headof state convicted by an international war crimes court since WorldWar II and judges said they had no precedent when deciding hissentence. Mr. Taylor will serve his sentence in a British jail. His lawyers,however, said they will appeal his convictions and that will likelykeep him in a jail in The Hague, Netherlands, for months.
Prosecutor Brenda Hollis also said she was considering an appeal. It is important in our view that those responsible for criminalmisconduct on a massive scale are not given a volume discount, Ms. Hollis said. The Special Court for Sierra Leone convicted Mr. Taylor last monthon 11 charges of aiding and abetting the rebels who went on abrutal rampage during that country's decade-long war that ended in2002 with more than 50,000 dead.
At a small protest outside the court, one man held up ahand-written placard proclaiming: Blood diamonds are not forever.They come at a cost Taylor. Mr. Taylor showed no emotion as he stood while Presiding JudgeRichard Lussick handed down what was effectively a life sentence. The lives of many more innocent civilians in Sierra Leone werelost or destroyed as a direct result of his actions, Mr.
Lussicksaid. Prosecutors had asked for an 80-year sentence; Mr. Taylor's lawyersurged judges to hand down a sentence that offered him some hope ofrelease before he dies. Ms.
Hollis said the sentence would only provide a measure ofclosure for victims of one of Africa's most savage conflicts. The sentence that was imposed today does not replace amputatedlimbs. It does not bring back those who were murdered, she said. It does not heal the wounds of those who were victims of sexualviolence and does not remove the permanent emotional andpsychological and physical scars of those enslaved or recruited aschild soldiers. Mr.
Lussick said an 80-year sentence would have been excessive asMr. Taylor was convicted of aiding and abetting crimes and notdirect involvement. But the judge added that Mr. Taylor was in a class of his own compared to others convicted by the United Nations-backed court.
The special status of Mr. Taylor as a head of state puts him in adifferent category of offenders for the purpose of sentencing, Mr. Lussick said. Mr.
Taylor's lead attorney, Courtenay Griffiths, warned that thecourt's refusal to take into account Mr. Taylor's decision to stepdown from power following his indictment in 2003 when setting hissentence sent a worrying message against the backdrop of ongoingatrocities allegedly being committed by Syrian government forces. What lesson does that send to President Assad? Mr. Griffithssaid. Maybe the lesson is: If you are a sitting leader and theinternational community wants to get rid of you either you getmurdered like Col.
Gadhafi, or you hang on until the bitter end.I'm not so sure that's the signal this court ought to betransmitting at this particular historical juncture. At a sentencing hearing earlier this month, Mr. Taylor expressed deepest sympathy for the suffering of victims of atrocities inSierra Leone, but insisted he had acted to help stabilize the WestAfrica region and claimed he never knowingly assisted in thecommission of crimes. What I did...was done with honour, he said. I was convincedthat unless there was peace in Sierra Leone, Liberia would not beable to move forward.
Judges rejected that argument, saying that while he posed as apeacemaker he was covertly funning the flames of conflict by armingrebels in full knowledge they would likely use weapons to committerrible crimes. Prosecutors said there was no reason for leniency, given theextreme nature of the crimes, Mr. Taylor's greed and misuse ofhis position of power. The purposely cruel and savage crimes committed included publicexecutions and amputations of civilians, the display of decapitatedheads at checkpoints, the killing and public disembowelment of acivilian whose intestines were then stretched across the road tomake a check point, public rapes of women and girls, and peopleburned alive in their homes, Ms. Hollis wrote in a briefappealing for the 80-year sentence.
Mr. Taylor stepped down and fled into exile in Nigeria after beingindicted by the court in 2003. He was finally arrested and sent tothe Netherlands in 2006. While the Sierra Leone court is based in that country's capital,Freetown, Mr.
Taylor's trial is being staged in Leidschendam, asuburb of The Hague, for fear holding it in West Africa coulddestabilize the region. More related to this story Liberian dictator wanted the carats, got the stick Conviction of Charles Taylor deals blow to traditional impunity ofdictators Conviction deals blow to traditional impunity of dictators 80-year recommendation for ex-Liberian president 'excessive,'lawyers argue. I am Other Consumer Electronics writer, reports some information about sony plasma television , microwave popcorn popper.
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