Per la Pau / Peace in Progress

The Special Tribunal for Sierra Leone has sentenced the ex-president of Liberia, Charles Taylor, to 50 years in prison for instigating crimes of war and against humanity in Sierra Leone between the years 1991 and 2002.

The sentence considers it has been established that Taylor provided military and financial aid to the Revolutionary United Front rebels in exchange for marketing diamonds mined in areas controlled by this armed group. The crimes he has been charged with include assassinations, mutilations, public rape of women, slavery and recruitment of child soldiers. Taylor, 64, is the first head of state convicted for war crimes by an international war crimes court since the Nuremberg trials after World War II.