Former Liberian President Charles Taylor has asked to be moved out of a jail in Britain where he is serving a 50-year sentence for war crimes.
Lawyers for Taylor say he has appealed to be transferred to Rwanda because his imprisonment in Britain unlawfully prevents him from receiving visits from his family in Africa.
Taylor is appealing to the U.N.-backed tribunal in The Hague.
In 2012, the U.N.-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone found Taylor guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity for aiding rebels during Sierra Leone’s 11-year civil war that ended in 2002.
Prosecutors said he received so-called “blood diamonds” in exchange for arming rebels who raped and killed civilians.
Taylor was the first former head of state to be convicted by an international court since Nazi leaders were sentenced after World War II.
Britain had offered to house Taylor if he was convicted. He was transferred from The Hague, in the Netherlands, to the United Kingdom last year.
Comments
About Author
