Smash hit

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.

Expert View

As four judges filed in, it was immediately clear that something was missing

David Charter

• More

• Post a comment

Related Links

• On-the-spot: Taylor misses his own trial

• Africa watches as Taylor goes to court

• Hope in the land with life expectancy of 37

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

Times Recommends

• Times Charity Appeal: SolarAid
• Is it Black Monday all over again for Dubai?
• Behind the scenes at the biggest deal