General News of Friday, 6 December 2019
Source: bbc.com
2019-12-06
A judge in London has cut short the war crimes trial of Agnes Reeves Taylor – the ex-wife of the former Liberian president Charles Taylor – on technical grounds.
Dr Reeves-Taylor won her appeal against charges of torture, which she denies, because of a lack of evidence that the regime led by her ex-husband controlled the areas where her alleged crimes occurred.
She faced eight charges relating to Liberia’s civil war in 1990, including torturing a teenage boy, forcing a pastor’s wife to witness her children being shot, and facilitating the rape of captive women by soldiers.
A BBC correspondent says the judge’s finding does not mean she was not guilty.
Dr Reeves-Taylor was ordered released from prison, but told she could not remain in Britain.
Charles Taylor himself is serving a life sentence for his war crimes in neighbouring Sierra Leone.