This is Charles Taylor, ex-president of Liberia. ‘Hi Charles!’
Charles is a war criminal. He was indicted on the 3rd of March 2003 on 654 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, (since amended to 650 counts). The UN doesn’t seem to be in any real hurry to convict him, considering he was only flown to Hague for the trial on June 20th 2006.
Even when the trial did start, Charles continued to be a pain in the a**. On the first day of his trial, (June 4th 2007 – almost a year after he arrived) Charles decided – since he seems to have the power to decide – not to attend his trial. Instead, he sent a letter with his lawyers complaining about not being able to receive an impartial trial. Well, committing 650 war crimes does tend to reduce your chances of an impartial trial.
Evidently the UN doesn’t agree with me. After failing to attend his trial for the second time, the presiding judge chided the court administrators, for not dealing with the defense issue. This time the ‘issue’ is Charles Taylor complaining over the size of his defense team, and then proceeding to fire his lead lawyer.
Doesn’t the UN recognise delaying tactics?
- Nishant
