The defence phase of the trial of former Liberian President and alleged ‘warlord’ Charles Taylor will commence on 13 July. He will answer 11 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity before the UN-backed Special Court of Sierra Leone (SCSL).

Taylor (61) will take the stand as the first defence witness after his lawyers present their opening statement. He has pleaded not guilty to all 11 counts including murder, rape, the use of child soldiers and sexual slavery during Sierra Leone’s 1991-2002 civil war, in which more than half a million people were killed. The Sierra Leone tribunal heard a series of gruesome testimonies by witnesses last year, during the prosecutorial phase of the trial.

 
Taylor is the first African head of state to be brought before an international court on war crimes allegations. 
His defence team has argued that Taylor should be acquitted because there is insufficient evidence to prove he planned or instigated atrocities in Sierra Leone. But the presiding judge rejected their request last month, saying there is enough evidence to suggest that Taylor provided Sierra Leone rebels with arms, ammunition, manpower and finances, that he offered them “safe haven and moral encouragement”, and that he traded so-called ‘blood diamonds’ for arms. The judge stressed that the decision does not mean that Taylor will be convicted.
 

International law expert Michael P. Scharf told Radio Netherlands Worldwide that in this phase of the trial Taylor's defence will call historians, character witnesses, and insiders to seek to establish
(1) that Taylor did not have direct and effective control over the Sierra Leone rebels and is thus not criminally liable under the theory of command responsibility,
(2) that Taylor was not in a joint criminal enterprise with the Sierra Leone rebels,
(3) that Taylor did not know and would not reasonably have known of various atrocities and is thus not criminally liable for the rebels crimes under the theory of Joint Criminal Enterprise liability, and
(4) that Taylor did not provide money and weapons with the intent that they be used for atrocities and is thus not criminally liable for aiding and abetting war crimes or crimes against humanity.
Michael Scharf is Professor of Law and Director of both the Frederick K. Cox International Law Center and the Cox Center War Crimes Research Office.
 

Prosecutors accuse Taylor of arming and controlling the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels from neighbouring Liberia, where he held power from 1997 until he was forced into exile in 2003. They say he led the RUF terror campaign against civilians, which included the use of machetes to chop off hands, legs, lips, ears and breasts of thousands of victims. 
 
Whether or not the trial will lead to a conviction will probably become clear within months. International prosecutor Stephen Rapp is leading Charles Taylor’s prosecution. He expects the case against Taylor to be completed by January 2010. Rapp believes firmly in the strength of the evidence, which he said has exceeded his expectations. Scharf is convinced that Taylor will be convicted: "He could get a life sentence, but I think 15 to 20 years is more likely". 
 
Britain, the former colonial power in Sierra Leone, has offered to imprison Charles Taylor if he receives a jail sentence. Scharf added that the SCSL has prisoner transfer agreements with several countries, most of them in Europe.
 
Charles Taylor was arrested after his period of enforced exile in Nigeria in 2006. His trial was moved to The Hague for fear that his appearance in an African courtroom could again foment violence in Sierra Leone and Liberia.
He is being tried at the Hague premises of the International Criminal Court (ICC) but his trial is conducted by the UN-backed Sierra Leone Tribunal in Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown.
 
Charles ‘Chucky’ Emmanuel Taylor (31), Charles Taylor’s American son who headed the notorious paramilitary Anit-Terrorist Unit (ATU) during his father’s rule, has already been sentenced by a US court to 97 years in prison for torture at the beginning of this year. His was convicted under a 14-year-old US law allowing the prosecution of its citizens for acts of torture committed abroad. Scharf:  "He was arrested in US territory and he is a US national, so the US Federal Court in Miami was an appropriate venue. The Special Court for Sierra Leone only has jurisdiction over 'those most responsible' and Chuckie was not seen as high enough in command to meet that standard."
Chucky’s trial mainly involved crimes committed in Liberia, not Sierra Leone. He plans to appeal.