Liberia/ICC - Taylor trial - interviews

Defence accuses US and UK of plotting against Taylor as trial opens

Article published on the 2009-07-13 Latest update 2009-07-13 14:41 TU

Charles Taylor in court
(Photo: Reuters)

Defence lawyers for former Liberian President Charles Taylor tell RFI that he has been set up by the US and the UK, as his trial at the International Criminal Court in the Hague opens.

Taylor denies all charges, which  include mutilations, rape, murder, enslavement, and the recruitment of children during the 1991-2001 civil war in Sierra Leone.

"Some of the statements made support that this prosecution has another agenda, which has nothing to do with justice nor the rule of law," Taylor's lead defence lawyer Courtenay Griffiths told RFI, calling the prosecution "corrupt."

"Rather, it has much to do with revenge against Charles Taylor," he says, "which is why the indictment against him is so misconcieved and why they've been struggling and having to amend that indictment on so many occasions to guarantee his conviction."

"The trial is very significant for victims of atrocities that were committed during Sierra Leone's armed conflict," says Human Rights Watch lawyer Elyse Kepler, who has been following the trial since it began in January 2008.

Prosecutor Stephen Rapp claims that Taylor was "an exceptional violator of human rights."

Around 120,000 people were killed during the war. Rebels mutilated thousands more by chopping off their arms, legs, lips, ears, and noses, as well as carving initials into the chests of child soldiers.

Defence lawyer Griffiths says that Taylor is paying the price for refusing to be manipulated by world powers. "Charles Taylor finds himself in this position as a result of policy of regime change," he says.

Courtenay Griffiths, Charles Taylor's lead counsel
(Photo: Reuters)

 "There were certain powerful countries, in particular the United States and the United Kingdom, who didn't want him to be the president of Liberia because he was too independent in his thinking and not willing as so many African leaders are, to be led by the nose by the West, for their own selfish economic reasons and geopolitical reasons."

Taylor is expected to testify in his own defence on Tuesday. His testimony will probably take six to eight weeks. Griffiths says that Taylor is "very eager" to take the stand.

Taylor tried to bring about peace after the regional body the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) asked him to get involved, th defence claims. Ecowas had set up the Committee of Crime and requested Taylor help to solve problems in neighbouring Sierra Leone, he adds.

The group also believed that a former rebel, such as Taylor, would understand about "what being a rebel is about," says Griffiths.

"It was at their insistence that he was involved in Sierra Leone; not to supply the RUF (Revolutionary United Front) with arms and ammunition, rather to try and find a peaceful outcome," he added.

Taylor, a former warlord, took control of Liberia in 1997 when his rebels unseated then-President Samuel Doe. He went into exile in 2003 after he was overthrown.