Liberia’s ex-President Charles Taylor has been sentenced to 50 years in jail by a UN-backed war crimes court.

Last month Taylor was found guilty of aiding and abetting rebels in Sierra Leone during the 1991-2002 civil war.

Special Court for Sierra Leone judges said the sentence reflected his status as head of state at the time and his betrayal of public trust.

Taylor, 64, insists he is innocent and his lawyer has told the BBC he will appeal against the sentence.

In Sierra Leone, where victims of the war gathered in silence to watch the hearing on a large screen in a courtroom in the capital, Freetown, the sentence was welcomed.

The chairman of the country’s Amputees’ Association, Edward Conteh, told the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme it came as a “relief” as Taylor was likely to spend the rest of his life in jail.

“It is a step forward as justice has been done, though the magnitude of the sentence is not commensurate with the atrocities committed,” AP news agency quotes Deputy Information Minister Sheku Tarawali as saying.

Taylor, wearing a suit and yellow tie, showed no emotion during the hearing.

“The accused has been found responsible for aiding and abetting some of the most heinous crimes in human history,” Judge Richard Lussick said.

The crimes – which took place over five years – included cutting off the limbs of their victims and cutting open pregnant women to settle bets over the sex of their unborn children, he said.

The prosecution had wanted an 80-year prison term to reflect the severity of the crimes and the central role that Taylor had in facilitating them.

But the judge said that would have been excessive – taking into account the limited scope of his involvement in planning operations in Sierra Leone.

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In a landmark ruling, an international tribunal found former Liberian President Charles Taylor guilty Thursday of aiding and abetting war crimes in neighboring Sierra Leone.

It was the first war crimes conviction of a former head of state by an international court since the Nuremberg trials of Nazi leaders after World War II.

Prosecutors, however, failed to prove that Taylor had direct command over the rebels who committed the atrocities, said Justice Richard Lussick of the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

Taylor remained stoic throughout the reading of the verdict. Dressed in a charcoal gray suit , a white shirt and a burgundy tie, he stood quietly as the judge delivered the guilty verdict.

The mood was decidedly different in Freetown, the Sierra Leone capital, where, as one resident described it, every television set was on.

“Relief. Relief,” said Jennifer Harold, national director of the charity World Vision. “Everybody is thrilled.”

Harold said Taylor’s conviction was a big psychological victory for his victims.

“People can be very cynical about justice,” she said. “But now you have someone finally getting caught, finally getting justice.”

A three-judge panel issued a unanimous decision that Taylor was “criminally responsible” for aiding and abetting crimes during a protracted and notoriously brutal civil war. He was accused of murder, rape, sexual slavery, conscripting children under the age of 15 and mining diamonds to pay for guns.

The former warlord maintained his innocence and pleaded not guilty to all 11 charges against him. A sentencing hearing is set for May 16.

Read more at CNN…

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