An international tribunal convicted former Liberian president Charles Taylor of aiding and abetting rebels who committed war crimes during Sierra Leone's bloody civil war in the 1990s.
The tribunal found Taylor guilty of 11 counts of crimes against humanity, war crimes, and other international violations, though it said the prosecution failed to prove Taylor had command of rebels. Rebels murdered, raped, and mutilated civilians and used child soldiers during the war.
The conviction is the first for a former head of state since the Nuremburg Trials after World War II. Taylor's trial began in 2007; he will be sentenced next month. International criminal law does not have a death penalty, and any prison sentence would be served in Great Britain, The New York Times reported.
Taylor was elected president of Liberia in 1997 after a peace agreement ended a brutal civil war started by an uprising from the National Patriotic Front of Liberia, which Taylor led. By 1999, anti-government fighting ...
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