Taylor war crimes trial

Prosecutors have argued that Taylor backed rebel groups during the same civil war portrayed in the film "Blood Diamond. Others actually miss the charismatic leader who showered loyalists and foot soldiers with money and benefits. Still, most Liberians eking out a living on less than a dollar a day, and far from the courtrooms of The Hague, are more concerned with other aspects of life, analysts say.

Generally they are more concerned with daily life. Over the summer, when Taylor testified in his defense, locals say the trial was front-page news; now, it gets only a small mention on the inside of the paper. Officials from the Special Court's headquarters in Freetown, Sierra Leone, occasionally hold outreach activities in Liberia, including video screenings of trial excerpts and town hall-style conversations. But the urgency of the issue seems to have faded. Last summer, when Taylor first took the stand in The Hague, video clubs across Monrovia broadcast videotapes of his testimony.

Today, soccer lineups and music videos crowd out the warlord. Robert Weah, who lives in Monrovia, thinks the Liberian government should be doing more to make the trial accessible to Liberians. And if you are concerned with those things, you will not pay too much attention to the trial. What about Liberia?

But he'll be content, he says, with any guilty verdict at all. It [would be] a poetic justice. Instead, they accuse the tribunal — and international justice in general — of bias against African leaders. He lived in exile in Nigeria until Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo decided, under political pressure, to hand him over for the tribunal. It is expected that the trial will last at least two years, with any appeal likely to extend proceedings beyond that.

The hearing is being screened in Freetown, where the public can watch it at the national court. E-mail to a friend. Share this on:. From the Blogs: Controversy, commentary, and debate. Sit tight, we're getting to the good stuff. On April 26 in , Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox. Almost a decade after they met at a celebrity tennis tournament, the television news reporter Maria Shriver marries the movie actor and former bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger on April 26, Politically, it seemed an unlikely match: Shriver, then a co-anchor for the CBS Thirteen-year-old Mary Phagan is found sexually molested and murdered in the basement of the Atlanta, Georgia, pencil factory where she worked.

Her murder later led to one of the most disgraceful episodes of bigotry, injustice and mob violence in American history. Next to John Wilkes Booth is killed when Union soldiers track him down to a Virginia farm 12 days after he assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. On April 26, , after receiving the promise of significant territorial gains, Italy signs the Treaty of London, committing itself to enter World War I on the side of the Allies. Live TV. This Day In History. History Vault. World War II.