Victims cheer as Taylor convicted of war crimes

Fighters in Sierra Leone raped and killed Halimatu Jalloh’s sister during the country’s civil war, but last night the 27-year-old student felt the pain of her loss ease with the conviction of Charles Taylor, the Liberian leader who backed the rebels.

Standing outside the local seat of the Special Court for Sierra Leone in Freetown, Jalloh’s hand-painted sign said it all: “Orphans, widows, widowers, rape victims, amputees, and all the war affected, wipe your tears as the dawn of justice has come.”

A United Nations-backed court in The Hague convicted Taylor, Liberia’s former president, of war crimes, marking the first time a head of state has been found guilty by an international tribunal since the Nazi trials at Nuremberg.