Taylor lawyer wants travel ban on Liberians lifted
By Alphonso Toweh
MONROVIA, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Former Liberian President Charles Taylor's defence lawyer has called for the lifting of a U.N. travel ban on Taylor's former associates so they could serve as witnesses in his war crimes trial.
Once one of Africa's most feared warlords, Taylor is on trial by a U.N.-backed court in The Hague accused of instigating murder, rape and mutilation by backing rebels during a decade of civil war in neighbouring Sierra Leone.
The United Nations imposed travel bans in 2003 against members of his administration to prevent them from undermining a transition to democracy in Liberia after he fled the country at the end of its own, parallel civil war.
"We have come here to see whether we can get witnesses and proof that will be used in the interest of Mr. Taylor," Taylor's lawyer, Courtenay Griffiths, told reporters in Liberia's capital Monrovia late on Wednesday.
"There is a climate of fear where those sympathetic to Mr. Taylor are afraid to speak out in case they too are targeted for sanctions. But ordinary Liberians should not be intimated by these measures," he said.
Griffiths, who was appointed as Taylor's new lawyer last month, has urged the court in The Hague to again delay proceedings which have already been repeatedly postponed.
Taylor boycotted the opening of the trial in a dispute over the resources allocated to his defence, prompting judges to order the court to ensure Taylor had a full defence team by the end of July, ready to resume on Aug. 20.
Griffiths said he had filed a motion with the Special Court for Sierra Leone, which is trying Taylor in a special sitting in The Hague, asking for the removal of the U.N. travel ban on certain Liberians, without specifying whom.
"Africans cannot afford to be mere spectators while a son of their soil, Liberia's democratically elected president, is put on trial in a foreign land," he said.
"The Liberian people, who elected him by a landslide, have not been given any opportunity to have an input in the trial or to judge him through a democratic process."
Taylor, who triggered Liberia's civil war when he launched a rebellion from the Ivory Coast border in 1989, was elected president in 1997 during a lull in the brutal war, which killed an estimated 200,000 people.
Taylor's trial is being held in The Hague because of fears that his continued presence in West Africa, close to his former associates, could again destabilise the region.
MONROVIA, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Former Liberian President Charles Taylor's defence lawyer has called for the lifting of a U.N. travel ban on Taylor's former associates so they could serve as witnesses in his war crimes trial.
Once one of Africa's most feared warlords, Taylor is on trial by a U.N.-backed court in The Hague accused of instigating murder, rape and mutilation by backing rebels during a decade of civil war in neighbouring Sierra Leone.
The United Nations imposed travel bans in 2003 against members of his administration to prevent them from undermining a transition to democracy in Liberia after he fled the country at the end of its own, parallel civil war.
"We have come here to see whether we can get witnesses and proof that will be used in the interest of Mr. Taylor," Taylor's lawyer, Courtenay Griffiths, told reporters in Liberia's capital Monrovia late on Wednesday.
"There is a climate of fear where those sympathetic to Mr. Taylor are afraid to speak out in case they too are targeted for sanctions. But ordinary Liberians should not be intimated by these measures," he said.
Griffiths, who was appointed as Taylor's new lawyer last month, has urged the court in The Hague to again delay proceedings which have already been repeatedly postponed.
Taylor boycotted the opening of the trial in a dispute over the resources allocated to his defence, prompting judges to order the court to ensure Taylor had a full defence team by the end of July, ready to resume on Aug. 20.
Griffiths said he had filed a motion with the Special Court for Sierra Leone, which is trying Taylor in a special sitting in The Hague, asking for the removal of the U.N. travel ban on certain Liberians, without specifying whom.
"Africans cannot afford to be mere spectators while a son of their soil, Liberia's democratically elected president, is put on trial in a foreign land," he said.
"The Liberian people, who elected him by a landslide, have not been given any opportunity to have an input in the trial or to judge him through a democratic process."
Taylor, who triggered Liberia's civil war when he launched a rebellion from the Ivory Coast border in 1989, was elected president in 1997 during a lull in the brutal war, which killed an estimated 200,000 people.
Taylor's trial is being held in The Hague because of fears that his continued presence in West Africa, close to his former associates, could again destabilise the region.
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Tighter race?
Asia greets G7 weekend pledges
