Taylor war crimes trial restarts

Former Liberian president Charles Taylor in court in The Hague
Charles Taylor faces 11 charges at the court in The Hague. Photograph: Michael Kooren/AFP/Getty
The trial of the former Liberian president Charles Taylor was reopened today, six months after the dictator boycotted the opening session.

Taylor, the first former African leader to face an international court, is accused of orchestrating war crimes committed by militias during Sierra Leone's civil war.

The 59-year-old faces 11 charges, including murder, rape, enslavement and conscription of child soldiers.

He is also accused of forming a "joint criminal enterprise" by giving Sierra Leonean rebel groups weapons and training in return for access to the country's diamonds.

"This is a huge moment as a former head of state is being tried for these most serious crimes," said Elise Keppler, the legal counsel for Human Rights Watch's international justice programme.

"For crimes like that to be committed with impunity would be a travesty."

Today, Ian Smillie, a Canadian expert on the international trade in blood diamonds, began proceedings at the International Criminal Court in The Hague as the prosecution's first witness.

He told the three-judge panel how diamonds had fuelled much of the violence in Sierra Leone and briefed the court on the country's history.

The prosecution alleges that Taylor was complicit in the Revolutionary United Front rebel group's campaign against civilians during Sierra Leone's 10-year civil war, which ended in 2003.

The group is widely understood to have been responsible for mass mutilations, usually by chopping off arms or hands, and the abduction of women and girls as sex slaves.

Taylor, who ruled Liberia from 1997 to 2003, has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

Since firing his attorney six months ago, he has appointed a team led by the British lawyer Courtenay Griffiths.

The former dictator, who faces life in prison if convicted, claims that because he was head of state at the time of the alleged crimes, he has immunity to prosecution.

Today, Taylor, who was wearing a grey suit and tie and gold-rimmed glasses, listened carefully to proceedings but showed no emotion as his trial resumed.

The complex hearing is expected to last nearly two years. An appeal could carry the legal process into 2010.

Smillie was the first of 144 prosecution witnesses, although trial attorneys expect only half of them to appear in person.

Nearly 60 witnesses will be called to draw links between Taylor and the militias, with most expected to do so anonymously for fear of reprisals by Taylor's supporters.

"I think they're desperate," Griffiths said today. "Let us now see what the firm concrete evidence is that he [Taylor] was directly involved ordering the atrocities in Sierra Leone."