Taylor boycotts resumption of trial

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor boycotted the resumption of his war crimes trial in The Hague, Netherlands, today, the second time he has failed to show up to face charges of arming Sierra Leone rebels and orchestrating a murderous terror campaign during that country’s 10-year civil war.

Judges adjourned the case until July 3 because of Taylor’s absence and the absence of a defence lawyer.

Prosecutors had planned to put their first witness on the stand Monday. Now the first witnesses will take the stand during a week of hearings to start July 3, according to a judge’s ruling today.

The hearing began with court official Vincent Nmehielle, who is responsible for ensuring Taylor can mount an adequate defence, saying Taylor had called that morning to say he would not be in court.

“He said the chamber knows why he will not be in court,” Nmehielle said.

Judge Julia Sebutinde angrily responded, “For the record, the chamber does not know.”

When his trial opened on June 4, Taylor also refused to leave his cell in a special wing of a Dutch seaside jail, saying in a letter read to judges he did not believe he would get a fair hearing and complaining that he had insufficient funds to pay for his defence.

Taylor, 59, also said he was firing his court-appointed attorney, British lawyer Karim Khan. He wants to defend himself or be represented by a high-level British lawyer known as a Queen’s Counsel.

Sebutinde harshly criticised court officials for haggling over the cost of a new lawyer for Taylor.

“The whole issue has wrongfully boiled down to availability of finances … rather than fair trial issues,” she said.

“We have frowned upon undue delay within this trial,” Sebutinde added. “That it would come from an institution in this court is really regrettable.”

She ordered an interim defense counsel to appear for Taylor at next week’s hearing. The court will hear witness testimony for a week before adjourning until Aug. 20, when a full defense team – including a new senior attorney – must be in place.

It was not immediately clear if Taylor could be forced to come to court next week, but Sebutinde said Monday: “The accused has no right not to attend,” she said.

Taylor has pleaded not guilty to 11 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for allegedly arming Sierra Leone rebels and orchestrating the terror campaign they waged during their country’s civil war, which ended in 2002. His trial is being held in the Netherlands for fear it could spark more unrest if staged in Sierra Leone.

The war was notorious for drugged child soldiers toting automatic weapons and hacking off hands and limbs of their enemies.

Without even appearing in court, Taylor has turned officials against one another.

Judges angrily questioned Nmehielle about why he had not yet appointed a replacement lawyer despite knowing for months that Taylor wanted a bigger legal team.

“Why … on the day that we are supposed to be hearing witnesses, why are we scrounging around looking for Queen’s Counsel?” Sebutinde asked.

Sebutinde criticised both the defender and registrar for not acting sooner.

She also suggested Taylor, who claims to be penniless despite a UN report that he may still have access to money he salted away in Nigeria during his time in power in Liberia, was asking too much.

“If the counsel have been good enough for 10 of the indictees in the special court, why are they not good enough for Mr Taylor?” she said.

Senior prosecution trial attorney Brenda Hollis suggested Taylor was trying to stall the case and urged judges to order him into court.

“The dilemma we are in today is of the accused’s making,” she said, calling Taylor’s boycott “an effort to manipulate proceedings.”

Elise Keppler of Human Rights Watch said the court had to ensure Taylor gets a fair trial.

“It is crucial that he have adequate defense and it is something that the judges need to make a decision on,” she said.

In his opening statement on June 4, the court’s chief prosecutor Stephen Rapp said witnesses will directly link Taylor to crimes committed by rebels.

The Liberian leader shipped rebels arms, ammunition and supplies such as alcohol and drugs used to desensitise children forced to fight, Rapp said. In return he got diamonds, often mined by slave labourers.

Last week the Sierra Leone court issued its first verdicts, convicting three former Sierra Leonean military leaders on multiple counts of war crimes, including the first-ever conviction for using child soldiers by an international court.