Culled from New African Magazine
The trial of the former Liberian president, Charles Taylor, is expected to begin in The Hague on 2 April 2007, but administrative and other bottlenecks have prevented his defence team from functioning properly.
The trial of the former Liberian president, Charles Taylor, is expected to begin in The Hague on 2 April 2007, but administrative and other bottlenecks have prevented his defence team from functioning properly.
The defence has not yet been given an office or even a correspondence address in The Hague, and it is threatening to pull out if no remedy is immediately found by the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) which transferred Taylor’s case to The Hague. Osei Boateng reports on a messy pre-trial period that has brought no honour to the international justice system.
With Saddam Hussein executed after what human rights groups have widely criticised as a “flawed trial”, which itself followed a similarly “flawed trial” of the former Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milosevic, at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague (Milosevic died before the prolonged trial was concluded), concerned voices have now been raised as to whether Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president, who is now in the custody of the ICC at its detention facility at Scheveningen (The Netherlands), will get a fair trial.
His defence team, led by the UK-based lawyer, Karim Khan, has threatened to walk out if certain pre-trial violations of Taylor’s legal rights and the lack of simple basic facilities and time to prepare his case are not immediately remedied.
“We have woefully inadequate resources and we will not take part in a charade unless matters improve,” says one defence team member. “Human Rights Watch [the US-based rights group] have criticised the Saddam trial and the operation of Milosevic proceedings. It seems as if no lessons are being taken on board by the SCSL and ICC, and they seem intent on making it a triumvirate of flawed trials.”
With Saddam Hussein executed after what human rights groups have widely criticised as a “flawed trial”, which itself followed a similarly “flawed trial” of the former Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milosevic, at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague (Milosevic died before the prolonged trial was concluded), concerned voices have now been raised as to whether Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president, who is now in the custody of the ICC at its detention facility at Scheveningen (The Netherlands), will get a fair trial.
His defence team, led by the UK-based lawyer, Karim Khan, has threatened to walk out if certain pre-trial violations of Taylor’s legal rights and the lack of simple basic facilities and time to prepare his case are not immediately remedied.
“We have woefully inadequate resources and we will not take part in a charade unless matters improve,” says one defence team member. “Human Rights Watch [the US-based rights group] have criticised the Saddam trial and the operation of Milosevic proceedings. It seems as if no lessons are being taken on board by the SCSL and ICC, and they seem intent on making it a triumvirate of flawed trials.”
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