LEIDSCHENDAM, Netherlands (AP) — Judges are passing sentence on former Liberian President Charles Taylor for supporting rebels in Sierra Leone who murdered and mutilated thousands during their country’s brutal civil war.
Taylor was convicted last month on 11 charges of aiding and abetting the rebels who went on a bloody rampage during the decade-long war that ended in 2002.
The 64-year-old warlord-turned-president is the first former head of state convicted by an international war crimes court since World War II.
Prosecutors have asked judges at the Special Court for Sierra Leone to impose an 80-year sentence when they mete out his punishment Wednesday morning. Taylor’s lawyers urged judges to hand down a sentence that offered him some hope of release before he dies.
Taylor will serve his sentence in a British prison.
