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Liberia’s Taylor awaits verdict in blood diamond trial


Former Liberian President Charles Taylor sits in the courtroom of the International Criminal Court prior to the hearing of witnesses in his trial in The Hague January 7, 2008. He awaits a verdict April 26, 2012 on charges of arming Sierra Leone’s rebels in return for “blood diamonds” in the 1990s. FILE

Liberian former leader Charles Taylor awaits a verdict Thursday on charges of arming Sierra Leone’s rebels in return for “blood diamonds” in the 1990s.
A three-judge bench will read the historic decision – the first verdict against a former head of state by an international court – at 11:00 am (0900 GMT) at the Special Court for Sierra Leone in Leidschendam outside The Hague.
Taylor, 64, is accused of helping Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels wage a terror campaign during a civil war that claimed 120,000 lives between 1991 and 2001.
The trial, which saw model Naomi Campbell testify she had received diamonds from the flamboyant Taylor, wrapped up in March 2011. 
Prosecutors alleged that the RUF paid Taylor with illegally mined so-called blood diamonds worth millions, stuffed into mayonnaise jars.
“He (Taylor) was really key in people’s minds as to who was accountable for what happened,” Elise Keppler, who monitored the trial for Human Rights Watch, told AFP this week.

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