Open Society Justice Initiative has launched a blog on the trial of Charles Taylor (right). Taylor, President of Liberia until he went into exile in Nigeria in 2003, is standing trial before the Special Court for Sierra Leone, a mixed national-international tribunal sitting, for this case only, at The Hague. The BBC provides, in "Charles Taylor - preacher, warlord, and president," a crisp summary of Taylor's "flamboyant" and brutal rule in West Africa; and also a summary of the charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes that he now faces.Taylor boycotted yesterday's opening session of trial, at which were read the "catalog of horrors" that is the indictment. The stage seems set for a repeat of the representation/self-representation tussle that that played throughout the international trial of deposed Serbian President Slobadan Milosevic, aborted in 2006 when he died before return of verdict. (A symposium analyzing the problem appeared in the March 2006 edition of the Journal of International Criminal Justice).
Thanks to Opinio Juris colleague Kevin Jon Heller for the Taylorblog tip.
