Liberia/Sierra Leone - Charles Taylor trial

Prosecutors begin cross-examination of Charles Taylor

Article published on the 2009-11-10 Latest update 2009-11-10 18:46 TU

Charles Taylor stands trial in The Hague, accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Photo: Reuters

The UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone has opened the cross-examination of the former Liberian President Charles Taylor, accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his alleged role in supplying arms to the rebel Revolutionary United Front in exchange for so-called blood diamonds.

Taylor denies all charges against him of weapons trading, instigating murder, rape, mutilation, sexual slavery and conscripting child soldiers during the intertwined wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone that killed more than 250,000 people.

Speaking from the stand on Tuesday, he told the cross-examining counsel that "this whole case [...] is a lie".

91 witnesses have testified against Taylor over the past year, while the former Liberian president has spent the past three months presenting his own defence.

Taylor's lawyer, Courtenay Griffiths, says that the large volume of documentary evidence to be presented – all of it from Taylor's personal archives – has made the process of building the defence case longer than originally expected.

Taylor has been working "assiduously" on his defence, his lawyer explains.

"That’s his prerogative, because at the end of the day, he’s the one on trial. He’s the one that could spend the rest of his life in prison. Consequently, he should have every opportunity to present his defence in the way in which he chooses, and not in the way in which I as his lawyer choose."

Meanwhile, the prosecution hopes that Taylor's defence will be dealt with faster than that of former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic. That trial ended without a verdict when Milosevic – accused of crimes against humanity – died in jail after five years of hearings.

Assistant special prosecutor Jeremy Waiser commented that Taylor's defence is "longer than I personally have ever seen an accused testify before an international tribunal, but they have chosen to present the evidence as they see fit – including reading an abundance of documents into the record, page by page, word by word, by Mr Taylor’s defence lawyer".

Waiser says that the prosecution intends to make Taylor's cross-examination more expedious.

He hopes that the hearing will be finished "in the first several months of the new year", to be followed by a judgement later in 2010.