Taylor could get life in jail, but no death penalty

FREETOWN, Mar 30 (Reuters) Ex-Liberian President Charles Taylor faces a possible life term, but not the death penalty, if he is convicted of war crimes by an international court in what could be a long trial, the chief prosecutor today said.

Desmond de Silva said the former warlord could make his first appearance by tomorrow before a judge of the U N-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone where he was flown yesterday.

He will be asked to plead guilty or not guilty to the 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including mutilations and sexual slavery, with which he is charged.

He is accused of receiving diamonds in exchange for supporting Sierra Leone rebels who often hacked off the limbs of their victims or raped them.

The charges stem from Sierra Leone's 1991-2002 civil war, one of a web of brutal regional conflicts in West Africa that shocked the world with graphic images of gratuitous killings and mutilations by drugged-up child soldiers.

If, as expected, Taylor pleads not guilty, the prosecution and defence would prepare for trial. ''On the basis of what has happened with regard to other defendants, the trial is many months away,'' de Silva told Reuters by telephone.

Taylor, 58, was taken into U N custody yesterday when Nigeria deported him after he made a brief abortive run for freedom from his exile home.

Exile in Nigeria, part of a 2003 peace deal for Liberia, had kept him out of the reach of the Sierra Leone court for nearly three years.

De Silva said Taylor would be tried under international criminal law, which forbids the death penalty, but can mean convicted war criminals spend the rest of their lives behind bars.

''It depends on how long he lives ... in international criminal courts people can be sentenced to 10, 20, 30, 40 years or indeed for the rest of their natural lives,'' he said.

REINFORCED GUARD World leaders, including U N chief Kofi Annan and U S President George W. Bush, hailed Taylor's swift delivery to the Sierra Leone court on Wednesday as a triumph of justice.

This was a relief for Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo who had been at a loss to explain how Taylor described by de Silva as ''something of an escapologist'' had managed to slip away late on Monday from his exile home in the southeastern Nigerian town of Calabar.

Nigerian police caught up with him early yesterday, more than 1,500 km (930 miles) away, when he tried to drive over the border into Cameroon with a trunkful of dollars.

De Silva said a contingent of Irish U N rapid reaction troops were being brought in from Liberia to reinforce security around the Special Court compound in Freetown where Taylor was being held since late Wednesday in a special cell by himself.

The Irish will join a group of Mongolian U N soldiers, recently hardened by a stint of duty in Iraq, to guard the large court compound in Freetown which is surrounded by barbed wire-topped walls and watchtowers.

Nigeria and Liberia had been at odds over how to handle Taylor's case since Liberia's newly elected President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf asked for him to be handed over in early March.

U N Secretary General Annan said Taylor's delivery for trial sent a strong warning to human rights offenders.

''His capture and his being put on trial does not only close a chapter but it also sends a powerful message to the region that impunity will not be allowed to stand and would-be warlords would pay a price,'' he said.

Reuters SB DB1852