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Dakar
10 November 2009
Prosecutors at the U.N. Special Court for Sierra Leone have begun
their cross-examination of former Liberian President Charles Taylor who is facing charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Mr. Taylor is the first witness in his defense and has spent much of
the last 13 weeks dismissing the prosecution case against him as a
series of lies.
So Principal Trial Attorney Brenda Hollis opened her cross-examination by asking Mr. Taylor: Who is lying?
"Now
Mr. Taylor, you have said to this bench throughout your direct
examination that all of this evidence here before you, it's all lies.
And you have talked about how perhaps, cunning is not the word you
used. But Mr. Taylor, it's true isn't it that of all the people who
have come before these judges, you are the one who has the most reason
to lie," Hollis said.
"Well,
counsel, I would disagree with you except you can point to me why would
I have the most reason to lie? I have been truthful before this court.
Unless you can point to me. I have told this court the truth. And I
suggest that you point to me and present the evidentiary fact before
this court for to suggest, as you are, that I am lying," Taylor said.
"Well,
we will do that over the course of the cross-examination, Mr. Taylor,
but of all the people who have come before this court, you are the one
facing these serious charges. Isn't that correct?" Hollis asked.
Well, that is correct counsel," Taylor responded.
The former president is pleading not guilty to an 11-count indictment that includes
murder, rape, enslavement, and conscription of child soldiers.
Prosecutors
say he led members of Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front across
the border and acted as their effective leader for much of the
country's 10-year civil war.
Mr. Taylor's lawyers maintain that
any contact their client had with Sierra Leonean rebels ended before
the jurisdiction of this court begins. They are also questioning the
legality of Mr. Taylor being turned over to the court after he was
granted political asylum in Nigeria.
Wrapping up his defense
testimony, Mr. Taylor said he agreed to step down as Liberian president
in 2003 in the interest of peace but was tricked by the international
community.
"This was about regime change, and everything was put into place to accomplish that regime change," Taylor said.
While
he says African leaders repeatedly assured him that his going
to Nigeria meant he would not be turned over to the Special Court, he
says Washington and London were determined to see him stand trial.
If
I had the slightest, slightest knowledge that the United States and the
United Kingdom were arranging such, I would have never left Liberia. We
have an old saying: A gift from a wicked man is a trap. I would have
never left Liberia," Taylor said.
He says then-Nigerian-President Olusegun Obasanjo approved of his
traveling overland to Chad in 2006. But when Mr. Taylor reached the
border, he was arrested for violating the terms of his asylum by trying
to travel outside Nigeria without permission.
"I
don't care what happens, I hope I am alive to really look into
Obasanjo's face one day and ask him to tell the world the truth about
what happened. With me I am Jewish. I do not hold any animosity. But I
tell Obasanjo today, and I am sure he knows it, that he lied to the
world when he said that I was escaping and he knew nothing about it.
Why he lied I don't know," Taylor said.
This
is the last case before the U.N. Special Court for Sierra Leone. The
Freetown session of that court has convicted the last of the Sierra
Leonean rebels indicted. Mr. Taylor's trial was moved to The Hague
because of concerns that his supporters might disrupt proceedings held
in West Africa.
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