Source: The Guardian
Judge at court in The Hague says ex-Liberia president's crimes were of the 'utmost gravity in scale and brutality'.
Liberia's former president, Charles Taylor, has been sentenced to 50 years in jail for being "in a class of his own" when committing war crimes during the long-running civil war in neighbouring Sierra Leone.
Judges at a UN-backed tribunal in The Hague said his leadership role and exploitation of the conflict to extract so-called "blood diamonds" meant he deserved one of the longest prison sentences handed down so far by the court. Taylor, 64, was found guilty last month of 11 counts of aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity, when supporting rebels between 1996 and 2002 in return for conflict gems. The offences included murder, rape, sexual slavery, recruiting child soldiers, enforced amputations and pillage.
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