The Hague has found former Liberian ruler Charles Taylor guilty of aiding rebels in neighboring Sierra Leone in a bloody civil war that left 50,000 dead. The judge said that the warlord provided arms and communications equipment to the rebels in return for blood diamonds. Taylor, the court ruled, is guilty of aiding and abetting terrorism, murder, rape, sexual slavery, cruelty, and conscripting child soldiers. However prosecutors failed to prove he had command of the rebels, and he was acquitted of commanding the militias. He's the first former head of state to be convicted of war crimes by an international court since the Nuremberg trials.
In this image, Charles Taylor stands with a group of rebels after taking control of the United States’ OMEGA radio navigation station in Paynesville, Liberia, on July 12, 1990. Taylor and his National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) launched a revolt against President Samuel Doe in 1989, which resulted in civil war that dragged on until 1996.
Patrick Robert, Sygma / Corbis
Members of the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPLF) hold a woman prisoner in Monrovia in October 1990 for giving food to enemy soldiers. The INPLF was led by Prince Johnson and had splintered off from the NPFL after Johnson split with Taylor. Johnson and the INPLF were responsible for the capture, torture, and murder of President Samuel Doe in September 1990.
Patrick Robert, Sygma / Corbis
An NPFL rebel shoots and kills student William Reah after a roadside interrogation on Aug. 3, 1990. The NPFL believed Reah was part of the Krahn ethnic group, which had been supplying fighters to President Doe’s army.
Joel Robine, AFP / Getty Images
An armed NPLF rebel patrols the village of Logatuo on April 30, 1990. Fighting in the area between the NPLF rebels and the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) had killed hundreds.
Pascal Guyot, AFP / Getty Images
The remains of a war victim at Monrovia’s Spriggs Payne Airport in 1990.
Patrick Robert, Sygma / Corbis
Refugees fleeing Paynesville on Aug. 10, 1990, due to violence between the NPFL and AFL.
Pascal Guyot, AFP / Getty Images
President Samuel Doe was captured and tortured by forces loyal to the INPFL and Prince Johnson in September 1990. In the video recording of Doe’s killing, Johnson can be seen being fanned while sitting in a chair.
Patrick Robert, Sygma / Corbis
Orphaned children trapped in Gbarnga in October 1995. Gbargna was Charles Taylor’s headquarters, and the orphans were trapped when fighting broke out between the NPFL and the United Liberation Movement. That same year, a peace agreement was signed that put in place a six-man transitional government, eventually leading to Taylor’s presidency.
James Fasuekoi / AP Photo
Fighting and rebellion again broke out in 1999, this time between Taylor forces and rebels against his regime. Here, a soldier loyal to Taylor’s government celebrates after launching a rocket-propelled grenade at rebel forces on an important strategic bridge in Monrovia, during the second civil war in July 2003.
Chris Hondros / Getty Images
As rebels sought to overthrow President Taylor, heavy explosions and gunfire shook Monrovia on July 17, 2003, sending panicked residents and weary fighters running for cover.
An orphan lies on his bunk at an orphanage in Monrovia in July 2003 as fighting continues in the capital city. With little of the country left in his control, Taylor resigned later that year and went into exile in Nigeria.
Chris Hondros / Getty Images
A war amputee sits with his daughter in Freetown, Sierra Leone, in 2006. By this time Taylor had been sent to Sierra Leone to await his war-crimes trial. He faced 11 charges, including murder, rape, and using child soldiers. He also was accused of controlling and arming Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front rebels, a group famous for cutting off limbs of its victims and using rape and murder as terror tactics.
George Osodi / AP Photo
Taylor arriving from exile in Nigeria at Roberts International Airport in Liberia in 2006. Shortly after this photo was taken he was placed in handcuffs and sent to Sierra Leone to await trial.
Mathew Elavanalthoduka, UNMIL / AP Photo
