well, he has been sentenced to 50years, I say Life...seriously how many of those years will he live before he meets all those he sent to their early graves.
After the cut, read how ABC reports it:
Former Liberian president Charles Taylor has been sentenced to 50 years in prison by judges at a United Nations-backed court in the Hague.
The 64-year-old was found guilty by the court last month for arming Sierra Leone rebels in return for "blood diamonds".
"The trial chamber unanimously sentences you to a single term of imprisonment for 50 years on all counts," Special Court for Sierra Leone judge Richard Lussick said on Tuesday at the court based just outside The Hague.
"The accused has been found responsible for aiding and abetting some of the most heinous crimes in human history."
Judge Lussick says the sentence is intended to underscore the gravity attached to "the betrayal of public trust" from Taylor's time as president.
Taylor, dressed in a smart dark suit, white shirt and golden tie, listened with his eyes closed and a drawn face as the judge handed down the sentence, which Taylor can appeal.
He was convicted on April 26 on all 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for aiding and abetting Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front (RUF) during the country's 1991-2001 civil war.
In return, the court said, Taylor was paid in diamonds mined by slave labour in areas under control of rebels who murdered, raped and kept sex slaves while hacking off limbs and forcing children under 15 to fight.
Taylor is the first African leader to stand trial for war crimes.
He was indicted for war crimes by a UN-mandated court in 2001.
Two years later he left the presidency of Liberia and headed for exile in Nigeria, before later being arrested in Nigeria in 2006.
Taylor is the first former head of state convicted by an international war crimes court since the Nuremberg trials of Nazis following World War II.
Culled from: www.abc.net.au
