FIDH welcomes the decision of the United Kingdom to jail Charles Taylor if he were convicted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL).
FIDH deplores that no State committed earlier to host Charles Taylor after his trial and judgement, in particular no African State, acting, if necessary, with the support of international community, to bear the costs of such an imprisonment.
However, with the commitment of the United Kingdom, international justice can be pursued, in a view to prosecute, in accordance with the right to a fair trial, one of the authors of amongst the most serious crimes.
The SCSL requested the relocation of the trial of Charles Taylor to The Hague, Netherlands, in the premises of the International Criminal Court (ICC), invoking notably security concerns. Nevertheless, this transfer was conditionnal on the acceptance by another country than the Netherlands to offer detention facilities to Charles Taylor after his trial and judgment.
This positive answer from the UK intervenes after the refusals of Danemark, Austria and Sweden.
The former President of Liberia is indicted by the SCSL on 11 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, carried out by the Revolutionary United Front and other armed forces under his direction and his support, as Liberian rebel leader and as President of Liberia.