Charles Taylor Sentenced to 50 years in Jail

Taylor during his sentencing on April 26, 2012

(IDEX Online News) – The Special Court for Sierra Leone sentenced former Liberian president Charles Taylor to 50 years in prison for war crimes related to the civil war in Sierra Leone in the 1990s.

"The trial chamber unanimously sentences you to a single term of imprisonment for 50 years on all counts," said Judge Richard Lussick at the sentencing today (Wednesday).

The special court convicted Taylor on April 26 on all 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for aiding a Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front (RUF) during the country's civil war. He can appeal the conviction and sentencing.

The court indicted Taylor on March 7 2003. The indictment was announced on 4 June 2003 on his first trip outside of Liberia.

The former president, the highest ranking official ever convicted in an international tribunal, "was instrumental in procuring and transporting [a] large quantity of arms and ammunition for the RUF, that he was paid for it with diamonds, and that he kept some of the shipment for his own purposes," including a number of +20 carat diamonds, according to the judgment.

Other charges included use of slave labor, murder, enlisting children under 15 to fight, rape, sex slavery and more.