 |
|
CONVICTED OF WAR CRIMES & CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY:
Former Liberian President Charles Taylor
|
The Residual Special
Court for Sierra Leone (RSCSL) has denied in its entirety a motion by convicted
former Liberian President Charles Taylor requesting that the court terminates
the enforcement of his sentence in the UK and transfers him to Rwanda to serve
the remainder of his 50-year prison sentence.
AFP in its own report
said:
An international
tribunal said on Wednesday it had rejected a request from Liberian ex-president
Charles Taylor to be allowed to serve the remainder of his 50-year jail term
for war crimes in an African jail.
The announcement was
made by the Special Court for Sierra Leone, which convicted Taylor in 2012 of
war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during a bloody 1991-2002 Civil War in Sierra Leone, which neighbours Liberia.
Taylor, 67, is serving
his sentence at Frankland prison near Durham in northeastern England.
The former warlord has
complained that his wife and daughters have been refused entry to
Britain and asked to be
moved to a prison in Rwanda instead.
“The motion is
rejected,” a three-judge bench of the court said in a decision handed down on
January 30, but only published on Wednesday.
“Prisoners do not have
the right to choose their place of detention,” the tribunal added in a press
release.
Other inmates convicted
by the tribunal for atrocities in Sierra Leone are serving their sentences in
Rwanda, but “Mr Taylor had no justification for demanding that he be treated in
the same way as other prisoners from Africa, given his exceptional circumstances
and the gravity of his offences,” the court said.
The judges found that
his wife and daughters’ inability to visit him in jail was not due to
“interference with his
rights to family life.”
“Rather, this was due
to their failure to provide information showing they intended to leave the UK
at the end of their visit” and Taylor’s wife’s “failure to comply with the
United Kingdom visa requirements.”
The judges also cited a
UN Security Council resolution that said Taylor’s presence in west
Africa could pose a
threat to peace and security in the region.
A spokesman for Sierra
Leone’s government, Abdulai Bayraytay, hailed the decision, telling AFP it was
“in the best interest of justice” and a “way of combatting impunity”.
Taylor was arrested in
2006 and sentenced at The Hague in 2012 for what judges called “some of the
most heinous crimes in human history”.
As president of Liberia
between 1997 and 2003, he supplied guns and ammunition to
Revolutionary United
Front (RUF) rebels across the border in Sierra Leone, who were notorious for
mutilations, conscripting child soldiers and taking sex slaves.
Taylor was found guilty
of backing the rebels in return for “blood diamonds” mined by slave labour.
A number of famous
witnesses took the stand during Taylor’s trial, including actress Mia Farrow
and model Naomi Campbell.
One of the victims of
the RUF’s amputation campaigns on Wednesday also welcomed the rejection of
Taylor’s transfer request.
Brima Sillah, who lost
an arm in an attack during an attack in the in the eastern Kailahun province in
1998 said “no one should have pity” for the ex-Liberian leader.
“Charles Taylor’s
troubles are only beginning,” said Sillah, who works as a security guard in the
capital Freetown. “Now he knows what it means to pay for your crimes.”
Following his
unsuccessful appeal in September 2013, Mr. Taylor was incarcerated at Frankland
Prison in Durham under an agreement with the UK. Eight Special Court convicts
who were tried in Freetown are serving their sentences at Mpanga Prison in
Rwanda.
According to a release
from the special court, the Trial Chamber, consisting of Justice Teresa Doherty
(presiding), Justice Richard Lussick and Justice Emmanuel Roberts, was convened
by RSCSL President Justice Philip Waki last July to rule on the motion.
Mr. Taylor had argued
that his imprisonment in the UK denied him his right to a family life as his
wife and children had been denied UK visas and so prevented from visiting him.
He also argued that because he was at risk from other inmates he was being held
"effectively in isolation" as he was "too much of a target and
too vulnerable" to be accommodated within Frankland's general prison
population.
The Trial Chamber
arrived at its decision on 30 January 2015, but released it publicly yesterday
after a decision on a pending related motion.
Mr. Taylor also argued
that he is the only prisoner convicted by an international court forced,
against his wishes, to serve his sentence on another continent. Africa is his
continent of origin, and he maintained that travel costs to Rwanda are lower
and Rwandan personnel share a "cultural affinity" with him.
However, in her ruling,
special court prosecutor Brenda J. Hollis opposed the motion on a number of
factual and legal grounds.
No comments:
Post a Comment