The first former head of state to be convicted of war crimes since
World War II was sentenced to 50 years in prison Wednesday by an
international court in The Hague,
Netherlands.
The court convicted Charles Taylor last month
of aiding rebels in neighboring Sierra Leone in a campaign of terror,
involving murder, rape,
sexual slavery and the conscription children
younger than 15.
The prosecution had asked the Special Court
for Sierra Leone for a sentence of 80 years for Taylor, the president
of Liberia from 1997 to 2003, but the judges found the
recommendation "excessive" citing the "limited
scope" of the conviction in some points.
There is no death penalty in international
criminal law, and Taylor, 64, would serve out his sentence in a British prison.
Culled from CNN
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