50 years in prison, as good as life imprisonment, will be announced for the former Liberian President Charles Taylor as he was responsible for some of the most devastating and brutal crimes ever committed in human history. The judges of an international war crime court said that there were no exemptions for this 64-year old when deciding the punishment.
He will be serving his sentence in Britain, but while his lawyers appeal his convictions, he is likely to be in jail in The Hague, Netherlands.
It is known that he got his ammunition and weapons by offering diamonds in return, which he mined using slaves. Judge Richard Lussick said that his crimes were extremely brutal and the sentence received by him would be keeping this in mind. While prosecutors demanded an 80-year sentence, Charles’ lawyers pleaded the judge to announce a sentence which gave him some hope of life after imprisonment. The judge said that 80 years would be too much since Charles was not directly related in the crimes.
After hearing the sentence, Taylor expressed his sympathy to the victims and said that he only wanted to help stabilize the West African region and claimed that he did everything unknowingly.
