{UAH} Liberian Charles Taylor moved to British prison to serve war crimes conviction

Frank Mujabi/ Robert Atuhairwe,

Former Liberian tyrant Charles Taylor is serving his life term at the Belmarsh High Security Jail in Woolwich, South London. This is the same prison that the ICC has reached a secret agreement with the UK government and the UN,  that Rwandan outlaw Kayibanda Museveni will serve his Life Sentence after his conviction for crimes of genocide, war crimes  and crimes against humanity, I don't know if it is a good thing, but Woolwich has a very large Ugandan population. The last time we tried to count, there were almost 3,000 Ugandan families in the area. Some of these people were victims of torture at the hands of the NRA and may object to a mass murderer being kept in a jail house in their backyard. I met some Ugandans yesterday who say they will object to Kayibanda Museveni being locked up in Belmarsh, that his mere presence a stone's throw away will bring bad memories and hurt their feelings.

Bobby

Liberian Charles Taylor moved to British prison to serve war crimes conviction

Liberia's former president Charles Taylor has been transferred to a British prison to serve his 50-year sentence for war crimes

The former president, 65, is likely to spend the rest of his life behind bars. Photo: KOEN VAN WEEL/EPA

By Agencies

2:43PM BST 15 Oct 2013

The former warlord was moved on Tuesday morning to an unspecified British prison after being guilty of war crimes committed in Sierra Leone.

He had asked the UN-backed special court in The Hague to serve his jail term in Rwanda instead, which he said would be easier for his family.

The plea fell on deaf ears and Taylor, the first head of state to be convicted since the Nuremberg trials, was handed over to representatives of Her Majesty's Prison Service after his plane landed at 11am, the Hague court said.

"Charles Ghankay Taylor... was transferred today from the Netherlands and the custody of the Special Court to the United Kingdom, where he will serve the remainder of his 50-year sentence for war crimes and crimes against humanity," the

Taylor is likely to serve the rest of his sentence in a British jail, according to a confidential deal made in 2007 shortly after Taylor's arrest.

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There has been speculation that he will be sent to Belmarsh high security prison.

A Ministry of Justice official declined to confirm that Taylor was in Britain or say in which prison he would serve his time.

"We do not comment on individual cases," said a spokesman.

The former president, 65, is likely to spend the rest of his life behind bars after the UN-backed special court last month upheld his sentence for arming rebels during Sierra Leone's brutal civil war during the 1990s.

Several Sierra Leone prisoners convicted by the SCSL court are already incarcerated in a special Rwandan jail that meets international standards.

Taylor's landmark sentence - on 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity - was the first handed down by an international court against a former head of state since the Nazi trials at Nuremberg in 1946.

He had been arrested in 2006 and sentenced at The Hague last year for "some of the most heinous crimes in human history".

As Liberia's president from 1997 to 2003, Taylor supplied guns and ammunition to rebels in neighbouring Sierra Leone in a conflict notorious for its mutilations, drugged child soldiers and sex slaves, judges said.

Taylor will be given credit for the time he served in detention since his arrest in March 2006, the court said. 

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