Liberia's Taylor not immune from war-crimes prosecution, U.N.-backed court

[maddezmom]

By Associated Press, 5/31/2004 09:51

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FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) A U.N.-backed court for Sierra Leone ruled Monday that ousted Liberian leader Charles Taylor is not immune from prosecution for war crimes.

Taylor, in exile in Nigeria, is the most prominent figure indicted by the war crimes court. He is accused him of backing Sierra Leone's rebels in a brutal civil war while he was president of neighboring Liberia.

The court's three judges, in a brief ruling, said that Taylor's claim of immunity as a former head of state did not apply, because the U.N.-Sierra Leone court is international, not national.

The court is scheduled Thursday to begin trying indicted figures from Sierra Leone's 10-year war, in which rebels waged an escalating terror campaign for control of the country's diamond fields, frequently hacking off the limbs of men, women and children.

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more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3151-2004May30.html

[Nlighten1]

1. This is big...because this means Bush isn't immune either.

Love it.