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Taylor in Hague, Prepares Defense For Trial
THE HAGUE, June 21 (Reuters) - Former Liberian president Charles Taylor was in jail in The Hague on Wednesday awaiting the start of his war crimes trial after flying to the Netherlands from Sierra Leone. The U.N.-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone in Freetown sent Taylor to the Hague, where the court will use the facilities of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The court in the Hague is not involved in the trial but the Sierra Leone court asked to use its facilities because of fears that a trial in Freetown could spur unrest in Sierra Leone or Liberia. Taylor's trial is set to begin as soon as Taylor and his lawyer have prepared his defence, officials from the Special Court said.
"One must give sufficient time to the defendant to study what he is accused of and give him sufficient time to prepare his defense," said Christopher Staker, prosecutor for the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL), adding that the prosecution was ready to begin as soon as possible. Taylor already appeared in court in Freetown for his initial hearing in April, when he pleaded innocent to 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for backing rebels who raped and mutilated civilians during a brutal 1991-2002 civil war in Sierra Leone, Liberia's neighbour. Taylor arrived late on Tuesday and was in handcuffs as he got off the plane at Rotterdam's airport. He was transported to a prison in Scheveningen near The Hague, where Slobodan Milosevic and other suspects were jailed to stand trial by the U.N. warcrimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
At Scheveningen, there is a special section for detainees from the ICC and Munlo said prisoners will not be separated. His transfer was authorised by the U.N. Security Council on June 16. The Freetown tribunal had asked the Netherlands to host the case but needed a third country to volunteer as Taylor's jailer. Britain drafted the U.N. resolution after promising last week to jail Taylor if he is found guilty. Taylor's rise to power in 1989 led to a 14-year, on-and-off civil war in Liberia that spilled across regional borders. He fled into exile in Nigeria in 2003 but was returned to Liberia and quickly transferred to the special U.N. court in Sierra Leone on March 29.
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