By Jonathan Ambaye
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa Desk

THE HAGUE,Netherlands-This week Charles Taylor responded to a number of allegations by prosecutors, that included Taylor jailing journalists, lying to United Nations Panel of Experts and his involvement in plans to attack Sierra Leone.

Taylor although admitting to jailing journalists, denied prosecutors allegations that he jailed them for investigating diamond smuggling. Taylor said he jailed the foreign journalists because they were trying to assassinate him, not because they were investigating his alleged involvement with diamond smuggling in Sierra Leone. While Taylor was President, he says a foreign television crew was detained for being part of a plot to assassinate him with a “cancer-causing” laser beam. The journalists were later released after security officers could not determine who was behind the plot.

Taylor also responded to allegations that he supported plans to attack Sierra Leone while he was in Libya. The prosecution questioned Taylor about his associations in Libya where rebel forces were being trained to eventually invade Liberia and Sierra Leone in 1989 and 1991. Taylor has repeatedly asserted he never knew about the formation of the Sierra Leonean rebel group Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and that he never met the group’s leader, Foday Sankoh, in Libya. Taylor insists he only met the leader of Sierra Leone’s Pan-Africanist Movement, Ali Kabbah, who was a former student leader.

The prosecution also questioned Taylor about testimony that he was not honest with the United Nations Panel of Experts (UNPE). The prosecution pointed out that in 2000, when Taylor met with the UNPE, he lied to them about the whereabouts of notorious Sierra Leonean rebel commander Sam Bockarie. According to witness testimony, Bockarie, after falling out with the leadership of the RUF, was invited by Taylor to relocate in Liberia. Taylor refuted these allegations. Taylor insisted he was honest in his response to the UNPE, saying that he was never directly asked where Bockarie was.  “I was never asked precisely where he was. I was being honest with the UN because as president of Liberia, I needed to be sure of where he was. I told them the official position of my government that he was escorted to the Ivorian border,” he said.
For more information please see:

Charles Taylor Trial – Charles Taylor Denies Supporting Plans To Attack Sierra Leone While In Libya – 18 November 2009

Charles Taylor Trial – Charles Taylor Was Not Honest With The United Nations Panel Of Experts, Prosecutors Say – 19 November 2009

VOA – Taylor Denies Jailing Journalists For Investigating Diamond Smuggling – 19 November 2009