Liberian warlord Taylor sentenced to 50 years in prison for crimes against humanity

PanARMENIAN.Net - A UN-backed war crimes court sentenced Liberia's former president Charles Taylor to 50 years in jail Wednesday, May 30 for arming rebels in Sierra Leone in return for "blood diamonds," AFP reported.

Taylor, 64, was convicted last month of all 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for aiding and abetting Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front (RUF) during the country's brutal 1991-2001 civil war.

In return, the court said, he was paid in diamonds mined by slave labour in areas under control of the rebels, who murdered, raped and kept sex slaves, hacked off limbs and forced children under 15 to fight.

Taylor, wearing gold-rimmed glasses and dressed in a dark suit and gold tie, listened with his eyes closed as the judge handed down the sentence, which Taylor's team, and prosecutors, have two weeks to appeal.

Early this month, chief prosecutor Brenda Hollis argued for 80 years behind bars for Taylor, once one of west Africa's most powerful men and a driving force behind Sierra Leone's decade-long war which claimed 120,000 lives.

His defence argued such a sentence would be "excessive".

Throughout the trial, Taylor himself maintained his innocence and insisted he was instrumental in eventually ending Sierra Leone's civil war.

He will remain in the UN's detention unit in The Hague until his appeal procedure is finalised.