The war-crimes trial of Charles Taylor, the former Liberian President, due to begin in the Hague next week, faces collapse because of a lack of funds.

The situation has become so acute that last week the three judges in charge of the trial cautioned during a preliminary hearing that they would have no option but to free Mr Taylor if the United Nations was unable to sustain an effective prosecution, The Times has learnt.

Mr Taylor – charged with crimes against humanity over his alleged role in funding and arming rebels during Sierra Leone’s ten-year civil war – is being tried under an unprecedented UN format that relies solely on voluntary contributions from member states. The tribunal, which begins on Monday, is expected to last 18 months, at a cost of $89 million (£45 million). The special court has enough funds either pledged or donated only until November, with less than $3 million in the bank.

“It is a crisis,” one official said. “It is a very, very serious situation. It sends a terrible message to Sierra Leone that it is not a priority for the international community despite all the efforts that were made to get Charles Taylor to the special court.”

Stephen Rapp, the chief UN prosecutor, and former chief prosecutor for the Rwanda gen-ocide trials, said that he was having to spend 40 per cent of his time travelling the world, “cap in hand”, meeting diplomats to urge them to fund the trial. In coming days he will travel to Ottawa, New York and Washington.

Mr Rapp said that the Taylor tribunal faced problems from the moment it was established in 2003 because of a “donor fatigue” that existed, because of the exorbitant costs and time overruns of the Yugoslavia and Rwanda tribunals.

UN member nations were obligated to fund those tribunals, but they were so costly that it was decided to set up a more flexible and streamlined “hybrid” model for the Taylor trial, with voluntary contributions. Britain, which played a pivotal role in ending the Sierra Leone civil war and has offered to jail Mr Taylor if he is convicted, has provided 20 per cent of funds to date, and has pledged another £2 million this year. More than 80 per cent of funds so far have come from only four countries: the US, UK, Canada and the Netherlands.

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