UNITED KINGDOM AGREES TO IMPRISON CHARLES TAYLOR

In response to a request from U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, the United Kingdom has agreed to imprison former Liberian leader Charles Taylor if he is convicted of war crimes. Taylor is currently in a prison in Sierra Leone where he is awaiting trial by the U.N.-backed Sierra Leone Special Court. In a decade-long civil war, Taylor supported Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front rebels who were infamous for mutilating citizens.

The trial against Taylor is expected to be relocated to The Hague due to security concerns and a fear that holding the proceedings in West Africa would renew instability in that region. The Netherlands agreed to host the trial only if Taylor would serve his sentence in another country. This offer by the U.K. removes an important obstacle and clears a path for the commencement of the trial. Taylor will be the first African head of state to be tried for war crimes by an international tribunal.
 

Updated June 15, 2006