Former Liberia President Charles Taylor Found Guilty Of Crimes Against Humanity
Charles Taylor, the former president of Liberia and the one-time business partner of Pat Robertson, was found guilty today of a long list of war crimes, including crimes against humanity. Taylor faces life in prison.
His trial lasted five years, during which the court heard a catalog of horrific acts committed by rebels whom Taylor helped arm in Sierra Leone’s civil war. The war ended in 2002 after more than a decade of fighting and more than 50,000 deaths. The rebels backed by Taylor became particularly known for hacking off the limbs of their perceived enemies and carving words onto their bodies. They also recruited children to fight and terrorized the civilian population through rape, looting and burning down homes. Crucial to their campaign were the weapons they bought from Taylor and paid for with what came to be known as “conflict" or "blood" diamonds, because of their role in fueling conflict in Africa.In 2010 prosecutors in the case claimed that Pat Robertson had lobbied the first Bush administration on Taylor's behalf in order to gain the rights to gold mines controlled by Taylor's war lords. Taylor testified that year that Robertson had indeed been his main political ally in the United States. According to pilots that worked for Robertson's Operation Blessings, planes that Robertson told 700 Club viewers were ferrying Christian relief supplies to genocide victims in Rwanda were in fact carrying mining equipment to Liberia.
RELATED: In February of 2012, Taylor's ex-wife, now a member of the Liberian Senate, proposed a death penalty for homosexuality. A weakened version of that bill is still pending.