Defence lawyers for former Liberian President Charles Taylor, on trial for war crimes, won the right to use leaked US cables as evidence to challenge the Sierra Leone war crimes court's independence and impartiality.

Both the prosecution and defence have already finished presenting their evidence, but the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) on Thursday allowed Charles Taylor to reopen his case and admitted into evidence two leaked US government cables the former Liberian president claims is prove that his trial is political. The two documents were obtained by Wikileaks and published in the Guardian newspaper in December.

The first cable - dated March 10th - quotes the US ambassador to Liberia, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, as saying that “all legal options should be studied to ensure that Taylor cannot return to destabilise Liberia”.

"The international community must consider steps should Taylor not be sent to prison for a long time. We should look at the possibility of trying Taylor in the United States," Thomas-Greenfield wrote in the cable.

The second, dated April 15th, allegedly revealed that sensitive information about the trial was leaked to the US embassy in The Hague by “unnamed contacts” in the court and the office of the prosecutor.

Taylor, 62, insists his war crimes trial is based on “lies”. He claimed in a written application that the US cables “raise grave doubts about the independence and impartiality” of his trial.

On Friday, however, the judges denied Taylor’s request to investigate and identify the sources within the court’s chamber, prosecution and registry who provided the US government with the information in the cables, saying “the evidence does not demonstrate whether these ‘contacts’ have any relationship with the US government capable of interfering with the independence or impartiality of the Court or any organ of the Court.”

The Chamber further held that, while the statements attributed to the sources within the Prosecution, Registry, and Chambers indicate that information may have been provided to the US government by employees within the Court, the statements do not demonstrate that such sources were receiving instructions from Washington.

Charles Taylor has been on trial charged with 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity since January 2008. Closing arguments in the trial are scheduled on February 8th, 9th and 11.