Although the election was widely reckoned as free and fair by international observers, Taylor had a huge advantage going into it. [73], Taylor has three children with his second wife Victoria Addison Taylor; the youngest, Charlize, was born in March 2010. Upon his arrival at Roberts International Airport in Harbel, Liberia, Taylor was arrested and handcuffed by LNP officers, who immediately transferred responsibility for the custody of Taylor to the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL). [85] She is reported to have left Liberia in 1992 before the end of the civil war and settled in the United Kingdom where she was a lecturer at Coventry University. [58], The verdict was announced in Leidschendam on 26 April 2012. [11], On 15 September 1985, Taylor and four other inmates escaped from the jail. Former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor had US spy agency ties Officials confirm Charles Taylor was valued source of information in early 1980s By Bryan Bender Globe Staff, January 17, 2012, 2:01 a.m. Literatur. [72] The divorce was granted in 2006. Taylor filed an appeal, but on September 26, 2013, it was rejected, and his verdict and sentencing were upheld. [1][2], Born in Arthington, Montserrado County, Liberia, Taylor earned a degree at Bentley College in the United States before returning to Liberia to work in the government of Samuel Doe. That year, a second Ivorian-backed rebel group, Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), emerged in southern Liberia and achieved rapid successes. Irish UNMIL soldiers escorted Taylor aboard a UN helicopter to Freetown, Sierra Leone, where he was delivered to the SCSL. This event was one of the factors that led to the outbreak of the Second Liberian Civil War. However, Reeves Taylor was not found innocent. Band II. [9], In 1977, Taylor earned a degree at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States.[10]. Updates? The Court, which sits in The Hague for this case, found that Taylor played an instrumental role in Sierra Leone’s bloody 11 year civil war. [36], Taylor insisted that he would resign only if U.S. peacekeeping troops were deployed to Liberia. Charles McArthur Ghankay Taylor (born 28 January 1948) is a former Liberian politician and convicted war criminal who served as the 22nd President of Liberia from 2 August 1997 until his resignation on 11 August 2003, due to the Second Liberian Civil War and growing international pressure. [16] By 1990, his forces controlled most of the country. Some have claimed that Taylor ordered Bockarie killed in order to prevent the leader from testifying against him at the SCSL. [4], During his term of office, Taylor was accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity as a result of his involvement in the Sierra Leone Civil War (1991–2002). This article first published in April 2006. He will be sentenced on 30 May. Charles Taylor’s career is ending as it began. Conflict ensued between Taylor and the opposition, and Monrovia became the scene of widespread gun battles and looting. By early 2003, LURD had gained control of northern Liberia. In 1998, Taylor attempted to murder one of his political opponents, the former warlord Roosevelt Johnson, causing clashes in Monrovia, during and after which hundreds of Krahn were massacred and hundreds more fled Liberia. On 4 May 2009, a defence motion for a judgment on acquittal was dismissed, and arguments for Taylor's defence began in July 2009. Yahya Jammeh, the former leader of the Gambia. During his presidency, Taylor was alleged to have been involved directly in the Sierra Leone Civil War. 1 of 10 After being removed for embezzlement, he eventually arrived in Libya, where he was trained as a guerrilla fighter. FORMER Liberian dictator Charles Taylor was today found guilty of sponsoring a brutal civil war that left tens of thousands dead. While the peace agreement had guaranteed Taylor safe exile in Nigeria, it also required that he refrain from influencing Liberian politics. Two days later, The Boston Globe reported that they sawed through a bar covering a window in a dormitory room, after which they lowered themselves 20 feet (6.1 m) on knotted sheets and escaped into nearby woods by climbing a fence. In March 2006, however, the Liberian government requested Taylor’s extradition, and Nigeria announced that it would comply with the order. [45] While awaiting his extradition to the Netherlands, Taylor was held in a UN jail in Freetown.[46]. Charles ruled for eight years from 1997-2003. Nigeria agreed only to release Taylor and not to extradite him, as no extradition treaty existed between the two countries. Logistical support was provided by a California company called PAE Government Services Inc., which was given a $10 million contract by the U.S. State Department. He had already taken over the former state radio station and took advantage of its access. [59] The SCSL unanimously ruled that he was guilty of all 11 counts of "aiding and abetting" war crimes and crimes against humanity,[60] making him the first (former) head of state to be convicted by an international tribunal since Karl Dönitz at the Nuremberg Trials. Attorney General of Virginia Mark Earley blocked any prosecution of Robertson, as the relief supplies were also sent. Grab a copy of our NEW encyclopedia for Kids! At Taylor's initial appearance before the court on 3 April 2006, he entered a plea of not guilty. Taylor supported the 12 April 1980 coup led by Samuel Doe, which resulted in the murder of President William R. Tolbert Jr. and seizure of power by Doe. In September 1990, Johnson captured Monrovia, depriving Taylor of outright victory. The Court's decision came after the UK Supreme Court confirmed, in a historic judgment on 13 November 2019, that members of non-State armed groups may be prosecuted for crimes of torture under section 134(1) of the UK Criminal Justice Act 1988, thus legally paving the way for the case against Agnes Reeves Taylor to proceed to trial. Join Facebook to connect with Dictator Charles Taylor and others you may know. That year, he resigned, as a result of growing international pressure; he went into exile in Nigeria. Bush publicly called upon Taylor to resign and leave the country in order for any American involvement to be considered. Frick, from three U.S. Navy amphibious ships waiting off the Liberian coast. Additionally, there was widespread fear in the country that Taylor would resume the war if he lost. As president, Taylor restructured the army, filling it with members of his former militia. A 1996 peace pact led to elections on July 19, 1997. On 2 June 2017, she was arrested in London by the Metropolitan Police and charged with torture on the grounds of her suspected involvement with the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NFPL) rebel group, which was led by her ex-husband, during the First Liberian Civil War, from 1989 to 1996. [citation needed], In July 2009, Taylor claimed at his trial that US CIA agents had helped him escape from the maximum security prison in Boston in 1985. Samuel K. Doe, the military leader who had gained power in a bloody coup in 1980. [1] On 11 August, Taylor resigned, with Blah serving as president until a transitional government was established on 14 October. [6] In May 2012, Taylor was sentenced to 50 years in prison. He was taken into custody and held in the detention centre of the International Criminal Court, located in the Scheveningen section of The Hague. Charles Ghankay Taylor born January 28, 1948 in Arthington near Monrovia - Liberian politician, former president and dictator of Liberia, the first leader of the African state condemned by the international tribunal for war crimes and crimes against humanity. To date, this is the only prosecuted case. Charles’s full name is Charles McArthur Ghankay Taylor and he was the 22nd president of Liberia. Taylor was sentenced to 50 years in prison. In 2006, the newly elected President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, formally requested his extradition. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. His sentence was upheld on appeal. Charles Taylor, in full Charles Ghankay Taylor, (born January 27, 1948, Liberia), Liberian politician and guerrilla leader who served as Liberia’s president from 1997 until he was forced into exile in 2003. [8] His mother was a member of the Gola ethnic group, part of the 95% of the people who are indigenous to Liberia. [44] This legislation came in the form of the International Tribunals (Sierra Leone) Act 2007. King's predecessor had pushed for the trial to be held abroad because of fear that a local trial would be politically destabilizing in an area where Taylor still had influence. He was the main cause of the Liberian civil war, which killed many innocent Liberians. It’s unbelievable that it’s been 10 years since the former Liberian Dictator, Kleptocrat, Murderer in Chief, Rebel Kingpin Charles “Gangster” Taylor disgracefully abdicated his throne under the combined pressure from the international community, the rebel forces of LURD and MODEL. Taylor subsequently attempted to flee Nigeria but was quickly captured. [60], Taylor appealed against the verdict, but on 26 September 2013 Appeals Chamber of the Special Court confirmed his guilt and the penalty of 50 years in prison. All four of Taylor's fellow escapees, as well as Enid and Toweh, were later apprehended. He was also accused of assisting the RUF in the recruitment of child soldiers. Corrections? The trial began in June 2007, despite Taylor’s refusal to appear in court for the opening session. His critics said he disregarded this prohibition. Omissions? He was detained by UN authorities in Sierra Leone and then at the Penitentiary Institution Haaglanden in The Hague, awaiting trial by the Special Court. Amos Sawyer alleges that Taylor's aims extended beyond Liberia—that he wanted to re-establish the country as a regional power player. [32][33] The Prosecutor also said that Taylor's administration had harbored members of Al-Qaeda sought in connection with the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.[34]. [50] Furthermore, Joseph "Zigzag" Marzah, a former military commander, testified that Charles Taylor celebrated his new-found status during the civil war by ordering human sacrifice, including the killings of Taylor's opponents and allies that were perceived to have betrayed Taylor, and by having a pregnant woman buried alive in sand. [17] The civil war turned into an ethnic conflict, with seven factions among indigenous peoples and the Americo-Liberians fighting for control of Liberia's resources (especially iron ore, diamonds, timber, and rubber). [75][76] In 2014, Victoria was denied a visa to visit her husband while he serves his sentence in the United Kingdom. The indictment was unsealed during Taylor's official visit to Ghana, where he was participating in peace talks with MODEL and LURD officials. The country was subsequently gripped again by civil war, and Taylor, accused of gross human rights violations, was indicted by a UN-sponsored war-crimes tribunal (the Special Court for Sierra Leone) in 2003. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Ghankay-Taylor, Fact Monster - People - Biography of Charles Taylor, Economic Community of West African States. [77][78], Taylor also has another son, a U.S. citizen named Charles McArther Emmanuel, born to his college girlfriend.