Taylor boycotts war crime trial again
Source: Agencies |
February 10, 2011, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
FORMER Liberian president Charles Taylor snubbed his war crimes trial for a second day yesterday, prompting judges to adjourn the case as they consider whether to allow a defense appeal over key documentation.
Taylor, the first African ruler to stand trial for war crimes, has denied 11 charges of instigating murder, rape, mutilation, sexual slavery and conscription of child soldiers during a civil war in Sierra Leone in the 1990s.
Taylor and his defense lawyer Courtenay Griffiths boycotted much of Tuesday's hearing after the Special Court for Sierra Leone refused to accept the defense's almost 600-page final document because they filed it 20 days after a January deadline.
Both Taylor and Griffiths, who has appealed the decision denying him the right to lodge the documentation, boycotted the hearing again yesterday and Griffiths said he would continue the boycott until the documentation is accepted.
"What we were trying to do is ensure we get some semblance of justice out of this and it's turned into this personalized attack on us," Griffiths told reporters outside the court yesterday. "I find it totally despicable."
Prosecutors accuse Taylor of directing Revolutionary United Front rebels who raped, killed and hacked off the limbs of women, men and children in a campaign of terror in Sierra Leone.
They also say Taylor tried to control Sierra Leone's diamond mines, using "blood diamonds" - stones taken from conflict zones - for profit or to buy weapons.
Griffiths has questioned the Sierra Leone court's -impartiality, citing leaked United States diplomatic cables he says suggest Taylor's prosecution was politically motivated.
More than three years of testimony was due to end this week. Tensions ran high on Tuesday, and Griffiths walked out of the courtroom.
Taylor, the first African ruler to stand trial for war crimes, has denied 11 charges of instigating murder, rape, mutilation, sexual slavery and conscription of child soldiers during a civil war in Sierra Leone in the 1990s.
Taylor and his defense lawyer Courtenay Griffiths boycotted much of Tuesday's hearing after the Special Court for Sierra Leone refused to accept the defense's almost 600-page final document because they filed it 20 days after a January deadline.
Both Taylor and Griffiths, who has appealed the decision denying him the right to lodge the documentation, boycotted the hearing again yesterday and Griffiths said he would continue the boycott until the documentation is accepted.
"What we were trying to do is ensure we get some semblance of justice out of this and it's turned into this personalized attack on us," Griffiths told reporters outside the court yesterday. "I find it totally despicable."
Prosecutors accuse Taylor of directing Revolutionary United Front rebels who raped, killed and hacked off the limbs of women, men and children in a campaign of terror in Sierra Leone.
They also say Taylor tried to control Sierra Leone's diamond mines, using "blood diamonds" - stones taken from conflict zones - for profit or to buy weapons.
Griffiths has questioned the Sierra Leone court's -impartiality, citing leaked United States diplomatic cables he says suggest Taylor's prosecution was politically motivated.
More than three years of testimony was due to end this week. Tensions ran high on Tuesday, and Griffiths walked out of the courtroom.
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