{UAH} TAYLOR RECEIVES DEATH THREAT -RENEWS CALLS FOR JAIL SWAP FROM BRITAIN TO RWANDA

TAYLOR RECEIVES DEATH THREAT -RENEWS CALLS FOR JAIL SWAP FROM BRITAIN TO RWANDA

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Category: POLITICS

Published on Friday, 20 June 2014 09:44

Written by New Republic

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On accounts of reported jail threats received apparently from inmates and his family members not having access to him, former Liberian President Charles Ghankay Taylor has reiterated earlier position that he would prefer serving his near-life sentence in an African jail than in a British one or a cell in Great Britain. 

 

Before the Appeal Chambers of the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone upheld the guilty verdict of the Trial Chambers of said court, Mr. Taylor had written and requested that he be detained in a Rwandan jail instead of in Britain, citing proximity and exposure to attacks by Al Qaeda militants.

The court did not consider the request which, if granted, would have afforded Mr. Taylor's relatives to have easy access to him, since Rwanda is not far from Liberia.

 

However, the former charismatic President has not given up on his desire to serve his jail sentence in Africa, as he has once again renewed calls, begging to be relocated from Britain to Rwanda.

Mr. Taylor renewed his wanting to spend the rest of detention in Rwanda on the pedestals of reported death threats, as well as his family having access to him, claiming that being detained in the UK denies him the right to a family life.

The BBC quoted his lawyer, John Jones QC, has indicating that Taylor's wife and children had been unable to visit him in County Durham.

Besides reports about Mr. Taylor's relatives being denied the right to visit him, the lawyer said his client has also received a death threat while at the prison.

It is reported that legal papers have now been lodged with the court, claiming that the Mr. Taylor serving his sentence in the UK breaches his human rights.

The former leader says it would be more "humane" for him, his wife and 15 children, if he was allowed to return to Africa to complete his sentence.

"In the eight months that he has been in the UK he has not received a single visit from his wife and children. He has minor children. When he was in The Hague on trial, he had regular visits, they came, they saw him, they went back," his lawyer told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

According to Mr. Jones, immigration officials had not allowed family visits because they are "not satisfied that they are going to return to Liberia after their visit to see him, which is ridiculous".

"What we are saying is the UK has a duty to ensure family life, not just for him but for his family. It's a clear duty under international law and English domestic law."

The UK would save money if Taylor was transferred, he claimed.

"He is not suing the British Government, he is not seeking damages from the UK and, on the contrary, for the UK taxpayer it would be much, much cheaper if he were to serve his sentence in Rwanda with all the other prisoners from the special court," said Mr John Jones.

He reminded authorities that Taylor was the only person convicted by the special court for SCSL to be transferred from their home continent and that he had the impression "there is a deliberate will to isolate him" - not just in the UK, but in the North of England.

Taylor has been kept in the hospital wing at HMP Frankland since his arrival as he is considered vulnerable, according to the document submitted to the court by his legal team.

An anonymous letter sent to Taylor, possibly from within the prison, threatening him with bodily harm and death demonstrates the "seriousness of the danger", the document adds.

Mr. Jones stressed that Rwanda was a more humane place for Taylor to be, as "everything is different here" - from the "freezing cold" weather to British food.

The former Liberian president, who won the 1997 special elections with the highest percentage in Liberian election history Taylor, was convicted on 11 charges including terrorism, rape, murder and the use of child soldiers by rebel groups in neighboring Sierra Leone during the 1991-2002 conflict, in which some 50,000 people died.

The former Liberian leader was found to have supplied weapons to the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels in exchange for so-called blood diamonds.

The RUF rebels were notorious for hacking off the limbs of civilians to terrorize the population.

Taylor has always insisted he is innocent and that his only contact with the rebels was to urge them to stop fighting.

However, a spokesman of the Ministry of Justice of Britain said: "Charles Taylor is being treated in accordance with the United Kingdom's obligations and in the same way as any other prisoner in England and Wales." 

 

Taylor was sentenced in May 2012 for aiding rebels who committed atrocities in Sierra Leone during its civil war.

Lawyer John Jones

He was convicted by the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL), with his trial being held in The Hague in case it sparked renewed unrest in West Africa.

The Netherlands only agreed to host the trial if he was imprisoned elsewhere and he arrived in the UK last October, having unsuccessfully challenged the decision to be detained there.

An act of parliament was passed in 2007 to allow for Taylor to serve his sentence in the UK at the cost of the British government.

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Gwokto La'Kitgum

"Even a small dog can piss on a tall Building", Jim Hightower

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