Prosecutors accuse Liberia’s Charles Taylor of lying about when he met top Sierra Leone rebel

Taylor: I didn’t know Sierra Leone rebel pre-1991

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Prosecutors accused former Liberian President Charles Taylor on Monday of lying at his war crimes trial.

Taylor has repeatedly claimed he never met rebel leader Foday Sankoh before Sankoh unleashed a savage attack on Sierra Leone in 1991 that spawned a 12-year civil war.

Sankoh founded and led the Revolutionary United Front, one of the most brutal rebel groups in a war characterized by savagery. He died in 2003 while awaiting trial at the Sierra Leone court.

Prosecution lawyer Brenda Hollis dismissed Taylor’s denial as “just another attempt to sow doubt to cover up your lies.”

Taylor snapped back that Hollis was “totally, totally incorrect.”

Prosecutors say the pair hatched a plot to attack Sierra Leone years earlier at a military training camp in Libya.

Taylor has pleaded innocent to 11 counts of murder, torture and recruiting child soldiers for supporting rebels in Sierra Leone’s civil war, whose signature atrocity was hacking off hands or arms of civilians to terrorize the population into submission.

The first international trial of an African president began in June 2007 but witnesses only began testifying in January 2008. Prosecutors rested their case a year ago after calling 91 witnesses.

Taylor testified from July to November last year in his own defense, casting himself as a peacemaker who sought to pacify neighboring Sierra Leone while he ruled Liberia.

Prosecutors have aggressively cross-examined him in an attempt to undermine his credibility and refute his claims. The cross examination is expected to last at least two more weeks. When it ends, Taylor’s lawyers plan to call dozens of defense witnesses.