Journal 5 Duncan Driscoll

Charles Taylor was a former president of Liberia and now is convicted war criminal serving a 50 year sentence. Before all this started he was accused of having to embezzled almost a million dollars from the government. He then fled to America and was later arrested in Boston, and then escaped prison and returned home. Once home, his greed for money and power continued and in 1989 when he formed a Militia Group called National Patriotic of Liberia. The motive of this group was to invade its own country. Between 1990- 1996 a civil war broke out in Sierra Leone. He helped capture the diamond mines and helped with the invasion of Freetown the capital. In the 6 year span over 150,000 deaths were counted. Finally in 1996 a peace act was established between the rebels and the government. In 1997 this is when Charles Taylor was elected President of the country. Many believed he used unfair tactics to win presidency. During his time in office he restructured the army by filing it with former members of his militia.Conflict began between him and Monroiva and a big gun battle broke out. This is when other governments around the world accused Charles Taylor of War Crimes. His trail begin in 2006 and did not end until 2012. He was convicted of arming, supporting, and guiding the rebel movement in Sierra Leone. Even though the court had a difficult time proving he commanded the rebels they found him guilty to 11 counts of war crimes. These included murder, rape, slavery, and child soldiers. Thanks to 115 witness over a 6 year span he was found guilty and sentenced to 50 years. He was 64 yeas old when he was sentenced and most likely will spend the rest of his life in prison.

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https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Ghankay-Taylor