Judges sentence Charles Taylor to 50 years for supporting Sierra Leone rebels in civil war

Lussick said Taylor’s position as head of state at the time of his crimes put him in a “class of his own” when judges came to setting the sentence — one of the longest ever handed down by the Special Court for Sierra Leone or any other international tribunal.

Taylor shipped arms, ammunition and other supplies to rebels in Sierra Leone in return for personal wealth in the form of diamonds mined by slave labor and to gain increasing political clout in the volatile West Africa region.

Taylor’s reaction in court Wednesday was in stark contrast to the delight of survivors who gathered in the Sierra Leone capital, Freetown, to watch a live feed of the sentencing .

“That makes me the happiest person on earth,” said Alimami Kanu, who was 11 when rebels backed by Taylor hacked off his right hand. He was one of thousands of civilians mutilated during Sierra Leone’s decade-long civil war that ended in 2002 with some 50,000 dead.

Human rights activists and international law experts also hailed the tough sentence as a warning shot for war criminals.

“Today’s sentence not only reflects the severity of Taylor’s crimes but sends a clear message that individuals who aid and abet war crimes can no longer act with impunity,” said Patrick Alley, director of Global Witness, a nongovernment group that campaigns to prevent conflicts erupting around exploitation of natural resources such as diamonds and timber.

The sentence came a month after Taylor became the first former head of state since World War II to be convicted by an international court. Judges found him guilty of 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, rape, torture and the use of child soldiers.

“The lives of many more innocent civilians in Sierra Leone were lost or destroyed as a direct result of his actions,” Lussick said.

Prosecutors had sought an 80-year sentence and said they are considering appealing.

“It is important in our view that those responsible for criminal misconduct on a massive scale are not given a volume discount,” said the U.N.-backed court’s chief prosecutor, Brenda Hollis.

Hollis said Taylor’s prison term would only provide a measure of closure for victims of one of Africa’s most savage conflicts.

“The sentence that was imposed today does not replace amputated limbs. It does not bring back those who were murdered,” she said. “It does not heal the wounds of those who were victims of sexual violence and does not remove the permanent emotional and psychological and physical scars of those enslaved or recruited as child soldiers.”