Taylor’s son convicted of torture in US

MIAMI, Friday

The son of former Liberian President Charles Taylor was found guilty by a US court yesterday of torture in the first prosecution under a 14-year-old law that allows citizens to be prosecuted for such crimes committed abroad.

The jury in Miami found Charles “Chuckie” Taylor Jr. guilty on all eight counts brought against him, including allegations he and his cohorts tortured victims in Liberia by applying electric shocks to their genitals, burning them with hot irons and melting plastic and rubbing salt in their open wounds.

“It sends a very powerful message to human rights violators worldwide that they are not welcome here,” said Sigal Mandelker, deputy assistant attorney general with the crime division of the US Department of Justice.

Five victims testified during the five-week trial against Taylor Jr., whose father, once one of Africa’s most feared warlords, is on trial in The Hague for suspected war crimes during the civil war in Liberia’s neighbour, Sierra Leone.

Some of the witnesses still carried the scars left by their torture, said south Florida Attorney General Alexander Acosta.

“The acts of which he was convicted were horrific,” Acosta said outside the Miami federal courthouse.

Sentencing is scheduled for January 9. The charges Taylor Jr. was convicted on, which cover acts of torture between 1999 and 2003, carry a maximum penalty of life in prison.

The younger Taylor was born Charles Emmanuel, changed his name legally to Roy Belfast Jr. in 1990 and is commonly referred to by his nickname, Chuckie Taylor.

Born in Boston, he was arrested at Miami International Airport in 2006 and pleaded guilty to a charge of lying about his father’s identity on a passport application.

He was later indicted for torturing victims when he was the commander of a paramilitary security force called the Antiterrorist Unit – known as the “Demon Forces” – that protected the elder Taylor while he was president of Liberia. (Reuters)