The former President of
Liberia Dr Charles Taylor has died in prison today in Holland. The late war criminal died of
heart attack.
For some of us who doesn't
know the deceased, here is a brief information that can enlighten you......
Charles McArthur Ghankay
Taylor (born 28 January 1948) is a Liberian politician who was the 22nd
President of Liberia, serving from 2 August 1997 until his resignation on 11
August 2003.
Born in Arthington,
Montserrado County, Liberia, Taylor earned a degree at Bentley College in the
United States before returning to Liberia to work in the government of Samuel
Doe. After being removed for embezzlement, he eventually arrived in Libya,
where he was trained as a guerilla fighter. He returned to Liberia in 1989 as
the head of a Libyan-backed rebel group, the National Patriotic Front of
Liberia, to overthrow the Doe regime, initiating the First Liberian Civil War
(1989–96). Following Doe's
execution, Taylor gained control of a large portion of the country and became
one of the most prominent warlords in Africa. Following a peace deal that ended
the war, Taylor coerced the population into electing him president in the 1997
general election by threatening to resume the war otherwise.
During his term of office,
Taylor was accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity as a result of his
involvement in the Sierra Leone Civil War (1991–2002). Domestically, opposition to his regime grew,
culminating in the outbreak of the Second Liberian Civil War (1999–2003).
By 2003, he had lost control
of much of the countryside and was formally indicted by the Special Court for
Sierra Leone. That year, he resigned as a result of growing international
pressure and went into exile in Nigeria. In 2006, the newly elected President,
Ellen Johnson Sir leaf, formally requested his extradition, after which he was
detained by UN authorities in Sierra Leone and then at the Penitentiary
Institution Haaglanden in The Hague, awaiting trial. He was found guilty in
April 2012 of all eleven charges levied by the Special Court, including terror,
murder and rape.
In May of 2012, Taylor was
sentenced to 50 years in prison. Reading the sentencing statement, Presiding
Judge Richard Lussick said: "The accused has been found responsible for
aiding and abetting as well as planning some of the most heinous and brutal
crimes recorded in human history."