“Why is Colonel Muammar Gaddafi not in the dock?” Courtenay Griffiths points at the empty seats, next to his client Charles Taylor. The lawyer tries to convince a panel of international judges at the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) that justice should be applied equally to all, calling the trial against Taylor “politically motivated.”

After a trial that lasted already more than three years, the war crimes case against Taylor is coming to a close this week, with the defence's closing arguments. Dressed in a dark blue suit with white shirt, tie and gold cuff-links, the former president is in court to hear his lawyer's final statement from the dock. Sometimes he passes a note to his legal team.

“Whether you are a princess or a prostitute, whether you are the president of the United States or the President of Liberia, the law is above you, that should be the guiding principle. That is the essence of the rule of law. Whether that, however, currently is the case, is a matter of debate,” Griffiths said, as he started his final plea.

Alleging "selective" prosecution, Griffiths reminded the court that its mandate was to try those with the greatest responsibility for the country's brutal 11-year civil war.

But "why is Colonal Muammar Gaddafi not in the dock?" he asked the panel of four judges."What about (Burkina Faso's president) Blaise Campaore, or Tejan Kabbah?" he asked.

Griffiths pointed to comments by David Crane, the first prosecutor at the UN-backed SCSL, who has said Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was responsible for the conflicts in West Africa in his efforts to destabilise the region.

"Have you not heard that the court would have been refused funding by the British government had they attempted to indict Gaddafi because the British government led by Tony Blair were anxious to pursue their economic interests in that country (Libya)," the lawyer said, underlining his point that the trial against Taylor is politically motivated.

Although Gaddafi is now under investigation by the International Criminal Court for Libya's violent crackdown on protesters, Griffiths went on criticizing the SCSL’s prosecutors saying "it is to the shame of this prosecution that it has besmirched the lofty ideals of international criminal law by turning this case into a 21st Century form of neo-colonialism."

Prosecutor Nicholas Kumjian told the court in the morning that other leaders like Gaddafi and Blaise Campaore of Burkina Faso had also supported the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), but it remained "a proxy army under one person - Charles Taylor."

"The involvement of Muammar Gaddafi and Blaise Campaore has been proven," Kumjian told the court, but "the RUF did not fight for Blaise Campaore, it did not fight ... for Muammar Gaddafi.”.

During the 1990s, Taylor rose from revolutionary leader to President of Liberia. Now he is on trial in Leidschendam, near The Hague. Not for crimes committed in his homeland, or for any crimes he is alleged to have personally carried out, but for allegedly arming and supporting Sierra Leonean rebels - specifically the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) – during the country’s bloody civil war.

RUF rebels sowed death and destruction for over a decade, hacking off limbs, raping women and pillaging diamond mines.

Prosecutors at the SCSL allege that Taylor bears the “greatest responsibility” for this carnage. They say they can prove that he fuelled Sierra Leone’s war, through gunrunning and drug smuggling and by providing the RUF with money and weapons in exchange for diamonds.

A major obstacle to prosecutors is the fact that there’s no evidence that Taylor ever set foot in Sierra Leone.

Griffiths said the Taylor trial is of great significance to international justice and Africa. But since Taylor has been on trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity since June 2007, Griffiths said no-one had taken any notice of the case until supermodel Naomi Campbell and actress Mia Farrow had turned up last year. But the minute they departed, the trial had returned to obscurity.

Taylor’s defence team will continue this week to stress that there is no relation between the atrocities in Sierra Leone and Charles Taylor. “Where’s the evidence, where’s the beef?” he asked, hinting at the fact that most of the 95 prosecution witnesses did not point their finger directly at him.