Arrest notice issued for Liberia's Taylor

Australian Broadcasting Company ^ | December 05 2003 | Reuters

[knighthawk]

International police organisation Interpol says it has issued a notice for the arrest of former Liberian President Charles Taylor, indicted for war crimes in Sierra Leone.

Interpol, based in Lyon, France, said the notice - which is not an arrest warrant but can be used by national police to make a provisional arrest - was issued at the request of the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

Mr Taylor has gone into exile in Nigeria.

As with all its "red notices", a photograph of Mr Taylor appeared on Interpol's web site, accompanied by the caption: Taylor, Charles Ghankay. Born on 28 January 1948. Nationality Liberia. Age today: 55 years old.

Mr Taylor, long seen as the mastermind behind years of intertwined conflicts in West Africa, was indicted on June 4 for war crimes in Sierra Leone by the United Nations-backed Special Court.

He is accused of arming rebels during Sierra Leone's long civil war in return for diamonds.

The rebels became notorious for hacking off civilians' limbs, mass rape and the recruitment of child soldiers.

The Sierra Leone court served a warrant for the arrest of Mr Taylor on the Ghanaian authorities on June 4, when the Liberian president was attending a summit in Accra. The warrant was transmitted to Interpol then.

In its statement, Interpol said member countries complied with their own national laws in deciding whether its notice represented a valid request for a provisional arrest.

Some countries allow the wanted person to be arrested pending extradition formalities, while others saw it simply as a request for information on the individual.

Mr Taylor, a former warlord, was elected president in 1997 after launching a seven-year civil war in his homeland which killed 200,000 people.

[knighthawk]

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