28/10/2021
Optimist _ October 28, 2021
Former Liberian warlord-turned-president Charles Taylor has filed a lawsuit against Liberian government over its refusal to pay his pension and retirement benefits.
Charles Taylor is currently serving a 50-year sentence in a UK prison after being convicted in 2012 by a court in The Hague of fueling civil conflict in Sierra Leone.
The ECOWAS court said Taylor had filed a lawsuit alleging his right to property had been violated by Liberia’s refusal to pay his pension and retirement benefits since 2003.
He called the action of the government ‘a violation of his human rights, particularly the right to freedom from discrimination, equal protection of the law, right to dignity, fair hearing and property’.
The court said no date has been fixed for the hearing for Taylor, who was Liberia’s president from 1997 to 2003.
Taylor was the first ex-head of state to be jailed by an international court since the N**i trials at Nuremberg in Germany after World War II.
He was convicted on 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity over acts committed by Sierra Leone rebels he aided during the war.
Taylor sparked a 13-year civil war in Liberia when he led a rebellion in 1989 to oust President Samuel Doe, which deteriorated into one of Africa’s bloodiest conflicts.
Charles McArthur Ghankay Taylor (born 28 January 1948) is a former Liberian politician and convicted war criminal who served as the 22nd President of Liberia from 2 August 1997 until his resignation on 11 August 2003, as a result of the Second Liberian Civil War and growing international pressure.
Taylor gained a reputation by some Africans as a man of many faces.
To his loyal supporters including Liberian humanitarian Cornelius Keagon, he was a preacher who gradually drifted into nationalist politics. To others, he is a rebel leader who later became president in Liberia's first democratic elections.
2 August 1997 – 11 August 2003
Vice President
Enoch Dogolea
Moses Blah
Preceded by
Ruth Perry (Chairperson of the Council of State)
Succeeded by
Moses Blah
Personal details
Born
Charles McArthur Taylor
28 January 1948 (age 73)
Arthington, Montserrado County, Liberia
Political party
People's Redemption Council (expelled in 1983)
National Patriotic (1997–2005)
Spouse(s)
Enid Tupee
(Married 1979; Divorced 1997)
Jewel Howard
(Married 1997; Divorced 2006)
Victoria Addison (Married 2002)
Children
14 Biological, 2 Adopted including Charles
Alma mater
Bentley University
Occupation
Former Head of State
Military service
Allegiance
Liberia
Years of service
1989–2003
Rank
Commander
Commands
Liberian Army
Battles/wars
First Liberian Civil War
Sierra Leone Civil War
Second Liberian Civil War
Years active
1997–2003
Conviction(s)
Crimes against humanity including, acts of terrorism, murder, atrocities against personal dignity, r**e, slavery, mutilation, use of children under the age of 15 in armed forces or groups, or use them to actively participate in hostilities, looting and other acts inhuman
Criminal penalty
50 years in prison
Details
Victims
+100.000
Date apprehended
29 March 2006
Imprisoned at
HM Prison Frankland
Born in Arthington, Montserrado County, Liberia, Taylor earned a degree at Bentley College in the United States before returning to Liberia to work in the government of Samuel Doe.
After being removed for embezzlement and imprisoned in Massachusetts by president Doe, Taylor would escape prison in 1989. He eventually arrived in Libya, where he was trained as a guerrilla fighter.
He returned to Liberia in 1989 as the head of a Libyan-backed rebel group, the National Patriotic Front of Liberia, to overthrow the Doe government, initiating the First Liberian Civil War (1989–1996). Following Doe's ex*****on, Taylor gained control of a large portion of the country and became one of the most prominent warlords in Africa.
Following a peace deal that ended the war, Taylor was elected president in the 1997 general election.
During his term of office, Taylor was accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity as a result of his involvement in the Sierra Leone Civil War (1991–2002). Domestically, opposition to his government grew, culminating in the outbreak of the Second Liberian Civil War (1999–2003).
By 2003, Taylor had lost control of much of the countryside and was formally indicted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone. That year, he resigned, as a result of growing international pressure; he went into exile in Nigeria.
In 2006, the newly elected President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, formally requested his extradition. He was detained by UN authorities in Sierra Leone and then at the Penitentiary Institution Haaglanden in The Hague, awaiting trial by the Special Court.
He was found guilty in April 2012 of all eleven charges levied by the Special Court, including terror, murder and r**e.
In May 2012, Taylor was sentenced to 50 years in prison. Reading the sentencing statement, Presiding Judge Richard Lussick said: "The accused has been found responsible for aiding and abetting as well as planning some of the most heinous and brutal crimes in recorded human history."
Early life
Government, imprisonment and escape
Presidency
Exile
Trial
Family
In popular culture
