Charles Taylor probably never set foot in Sierra Leone during the ten-year civil war that left up to 300,000 dead. But today he will stand in the dock accused of masterminding the brutal rebels who terrorised the West African country.

The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) ate the hearts of its victims, amputated the limbs of thousands more and decorated its checkpoints with human entrails.

Mr Taylor, 59, will face the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone accused of crimes against humanity by using his position as President of Liberia to fund, direct and equip the RUF, fuelled with the proceeds from so-called blood diamonds.

Fears of unrest in Freetown have led the trial to be moved to The Hague after Mr Taylor’s initial court appearance in the Sierra Leone capital at which he pleaded not guilty with a trademark flourish.

“I could not have committed these acts against the sister republic of Sierra Leone,” he told the judge. “I think this is an attempt to continue to divide and rule the people of Liberia and Sierra Leone, so most definitely I am not guilty.” Over the course of the next 18 months, the prosecution has lined up 139 witnesses who will testify otherwise.

In the meantime, Mr Taylor will be held in the same complex that housed Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslavian leader who died before his trial could reach a verdict.

With Mr Taylor’s defence not due to start until next year, court officials admit that the process may seem lengthy. But Herman von Hebel, the acting registrar, said: “We tried to find a middle way between the Milosevic trial, which dragged on for four years, and Saddam Hussein’s, which lasted only six or seven months and there was so much criticism towards the proceedings.”

Mr Taylor’s trial, which will cost an estimated $89 million (£45 million), is already facing a struggle to raise funds from international donors with only $3 million believed to be in the bank. The UN-backed process will also cover the estimated $2 million cost of Mr Taylor’s defence because nobody has been able to track down the personal fortune he is assumed to have salted away during six bloodstained years in power.

Mr von Hebel added: “There are rumours about the whereabouts of his funds but no one knows where they are. In order to ensure his rights as the accused, presumed innocent until found guilty, we have to pay for the defence of Charles Taylor.”

Unlike Saddam and many Liberians accused of atrocities, Mr Taylor does not face the death penalty and Britain has offered to be his permanent jailer if he is found guilty.

The appearance of the first African leader to face international criminal charges will be watched uneasily by many in the continent’s ruling class. Mr Taylor was given up to the UN by Nigeria, where he went into voluntary exile in 2004.

"This sets a serious precedent,” Colonel Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, said. “This means that every head of state could meet a similar fate.”

The trial will hold a special interest for Colonel Gaddafi for, according to court documents, it was he who took in Charles Taylor in the late 1980s after his escape from a US jail in Massachusetts, where he was being held under a Liberian extradition warrant. The Libyan leader provided military training and introduced Mr Taylor to Foday Sankoh, the man who became the leader of the RUF but who escaped justice when he died in British custody.

From 1989 to 1997, Mr Taylor led the rebel National Patriotic Front of Liberia, notorious for its bloody campaign to depose Samuel Doe, the President. Mr Taylor is believed to be one of the first warlords to recruit child soldiers, who were organised into a Small Boys Unit.

Tens of thousands were killed in the war but, in one of Liberia’s great paradoxes, in 1997 Mr Taylor won a landslide election victory.

Now he is finally on trial, it is for atrocities not on his own soil but in a neighbouring nation. Yet in Monrovia, where he still commands respect, his supporters have put up billboards of him with the words, “God willing, I shall return”.

The man

1948 Charles Taylor born

1972 Moved to study economics in US, then stayed on to work for Liberian Government

1984 Accused of embezzling $1 million of Liberian funds. Jailed in US but escaped – some reports claim by sawing through the metal bars

1989 Formed National Patriotic Front of Liberia and overthrew Government in brutal campaign

1997 Ran for election under slogan, “He killed my ma, he killed my pa, I vote for him” Won by landslide

2003 Rebellion forces his resignation, and he seeks exile in Nigeria

2006 Arrested and taken to Sierra Leone to face trial

Source: Times Archives

The charges

1 Acts of terrorism
2 Crimes against humanity: murder
3 Violence to life, health and physical or mental well-being
4 Crimes against humanity: rape
5 Crimes against humanity: sexual slavery
6 Outrages on personal dignity
7 Cruel treatment
8 Crimes against humanity: mutilations
9 Conscripting child soldiers
10 Crimes against humanity: enslavement for forced labour
11 Pillage

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