Special Court for Sierra Leone, Taylor Trial, Update 107

Taylor Trial

Special Court for Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone

English

After 205 days—or 41 full weeks—of court sessions, examination of the Prosecution’s 91st and final witness concluded on January 30, 2009. Prosecutor Stephen Rapp said his team had “achieved was [they] set out to do.”1 Proceedings ran smoothly and efficiently in these final weeks. The Defendant missed a single day of trial on the last day of the session, but he gave consent for the trial to proceed in his absence. The trial session extended several days past the original schedule in December so the Defense could finish cross-examining witness TF1-274, Dauda Fornie, before the winter recess (December 12, 2008 – January 12, 2009). Fornie, a radio operator in the RUF, provided the last strong linkage testimony heard in open session. Upon resuming hearings in January, the Court heard the remaining seven Prosecution witnesses. Hassan Bility, a Liberian journalist, testified that Taylor had him tortured for authoring newspaper articles about Taylor’s involvement with the RUF in Sierra Leone. Special Court for Sierra Leone employee Tarik Maliq testified about how documentary evidence is processed at the SCSL. One witness gave testimony entirely in closed session. The Prosecution closed the session with four crime-base witnesses. These witnesses provided testimony about the atrocities allegedly committed by the RUF and AFRC forces in Sierra Leone from 1996 to 2002.