Liberia's Taylor appears in Freetown's court for first time
4/4/2006 15:12
Former Liberian leader Charles Taylor, who yesterday became the first
African ex-president to answer war crimes charges in the UN-backed special court
in Sierra Leone, pleaded not guilty to all the indictments.
The first court
appearance of the 58-year-old ex-warlord, who was arrested and transferred to
Freetown last week barely 36 hours after escaping from his villa in exile in
Nigeria, started at about 3:00 p.m. (1500 GMT) and lasted about one
hour.
Taylor, wearing a dark suit and brown tie, pleaded not guilty to the 11
indictments for atrocities committed during Sierra Leone 's 1991-2002 civil war,
which were read to him by Judge Richard Lussick.
He is accused by the special
court of arming Sierra Leone's rebels, notorious for recruiting child soldiers
and amputating the limbs of innocent women and children, in return for "blood
diamonds."
"Most definitely, your honor, I did not and could not have
committed these acts against the sister republic of Sierra Leone," he said,
according to television footages.
"I think that this is an attempt to
continue to divide and rule the people of Liberia and Sierra Leone and so most
definitely I am not guilty," Taylor added.
Chief Prosecutor of the court,
Desmond de Silva, said in a statement that Monday's court appearance of Taylor
marked the first phase of the trial.
"The people of Sierra Leone have been
waiting patiently for three years to see the accused finally face the Trial
Chamber in Lagos at the Special Court. Today this has happened," he
said.
"Today also marks an important step in the administration of
international criminal justice. Those who commit atrocities and violate
international humanitarian law will be held accountable."
"Now that the
Defendant has pleaded not guilty to all counts, it is up to the Prosecution to
prove its case," Silva added.
The court's spokesman, Peter Andersen, in an
e-mail to Xinhua said Taylor required legal aid as he is broke to the wide
now.
"Now the Defense Office will work to secure defense lawyers for him. He
filed a declaration of means and, based on that, the Principal Defender has
concluded that he is partially indigent," Andersen said.
The actual trial,
however, is expected to begin at least months later, as the court had called for
a change of the trial venue to The Hague for the west African region's
stability.
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf had also said that the
court in The Hague would be a "more conducive environment" for Taylor's trial.
But Taylor reportedly preferred to be tried in Sierra Leone.
Taylor accepted
Nigeria's offer of safe exile in August 2003 when rebels besieged Monrovia, as
part of a deal to end his homeland's 14-year-old civil war that claimed about
250,000 lives. His attempt to flee last week after Nigeria agreed to return him
to Liberia was soon aborted.
Xinhua
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