Former Liberian President Charles Taylor arrived Tuesday in the
Netherlands, where he will be tried on charges of war crimes and
crimes against humanity, officials said.
Taylor had been taken into custody in Sierra Leone before his
flight by a UN-chartered plane to the Netherlands. He is due to
stand trial in The Hague on 11 counts of war crimes and crimes
against humanity allegedly committed during his Liberian
presidency.
Besides charges which implicates him in backing Sierra Leonean
rebels who killed and mutilated civilians during the country's
1991-2002 civil war, Taylor is also accused of instigating violence
in Liberia and elsewhere in West Africa.
The UN Special Court for Sierra Leone had asked the
Netherlands-based International Criminal Court to host the trial
for security reasons.
The United Nations Security Council on June 16 authorized his
transfer from the Sierra Leone court to the court in the
Netherlands.
(Xinhua News Agency June 21, 2006)
