Torture trial of former Liberian president Charles Taylor's son begins

[Eugene]

Source: McClatchy newspapers

Torture trial of former Liberian president Charles Taylor's son begins
The Miami criminal case marks the first US prosecution
of torture committed in a foreign country

guardian.co.uk, Tuesday September 30 2008 16:43 BST

The son of former Liberian president Charles Taylor
ran a security force in his father's government with
a brutal agenda marked by the beating, burning and
beheading of people opposed to his rule, a federal
prosecutor said Monday during a landmark torture
trial in Miami.

Charles "Chuckie" Taylor Jr, born in Boston and
raised in Orlando, Florida, was tapped by his father
to command an anti-terrorist unit called the Demon
Forces that cut a man's penis with a sharp knife
before dumping him in a dirt pit, Justice Department
prosecutor Christopher Graveline said in opening
statements.

"You will hear witness after witness tell about the
fear they felt when they heard that name," Graveline
said, referring to the nickname, "Chuckie," that
Taylor went by in Liberia from 1999 to 2003 when he
served as a security-force boss.

The Miami criminal case - taking place at the same
time the father faces a war crimes tribunal in The
Hague, Netherlands - marks the first US prosecution
of torture committed in a foreign country. Taylor,
a 31-year-old U.S. citizen, is charged with
conspiracy, torture and carrying a firearm during
a violent crime.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/30/liberia.usa

[trollybob]

1. When is it George W. Bush's turn

to face the war crimes tribunal at The Hague?