Taylor awaits start of trial in ICC prison

AMSTERDAM, June 21 (Reuters) Former Liberian president Charles Taylor was in jail in The Hague today awaiting the start of his war crimes trial after a flight from Sierra Leone.

He was flown from the U N-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone in Freetown on fears a trial there could spur unrest in Sierra Leone or Liberia.

Procedures for the trial, which will use the facilities of the International Criminal Court (ICC) -- which is not involved -- were expected to be announced on Wednesday by the registrar of the Special Court.

Taylor already appeared in court for his initial hearing in April, when he pleaded innocent to 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for backing rebels who raped and mutilated civilians during a brutal 1991-2002 civil war in Sierra Leone, Liberia's neighbour.

He was flown in yesterday after his transfer was authorised by the U N Security Council on June 16.

The Freetown tribunal had asked the Netherlands to host the case but needed a third country to volunteer as Taylor's jailer.

Britain drafted the U N resolution after promising last Thursday to jail Taylor, one of Africa's most feared warlords, if he is found guilty.

Taylor's rise to power in 1989 led to a 14-year, on-and-off civil war in Liberia that spilled across regional borders.

He fled into exile in Nigeria in 2003 but was returned to Liberia and quickly transferred to the special U N court in Sierra Leone on March 29.

REUTERS PDS BST0516