Usually very reliable sources say the Liberian former warlord, Charles Taylor has arrived in Freetown in a helicopter and is now in the custody of the Special Court.
The fugitive former Liberian warlord Charles Dahkpanah Ghankay Taylor(photo) who recently disappeared from his home in Calabar, was arrested by the Nigerian authorities at the Cameroon border and sent back to Liberia on a Nigerian jet.
Taylor caused consternation and international outcry yesterday when he disappeared from his home in Calabar where he had been living for some time on imposed exile.
After his arrest, he was said to have been handcuffed and sent to Robertsfield airport near Monrovia where he was awaiting transportation to Freetown.
Sierra Leoneans at home and abroad are divided over a Taylor trial in Freetown. Some, like Bishp Humper of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission recently stated that the country does not need Taylor in Freetown but social amenities and jobs for the masses while many civil society groups in the country have been issuing statements calling for Taylor’s transfer to the Special Court in Freetown to answer to charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Other Sierra leoneans also worry about security, on whether the country can withstand a military onslaught from Taylor supporters at the country’s porous border with Liberia.
However, one individual that will be extremely glad to have Taylor in Freetown is the Special Court’s prosecutor Desmond de Silva who issued a strongly worded statement yesterday expressing dismay over the Taylor disappearance and called on the Nigerian authorities to reverse the situation.
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