FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — The man who was once Africa's most feared warlord listened impassively to a litany of horrors couched in dispassionate legal language — cutting off of limbs and other body parts; rape, abduction and sexual slavery; pillaging; conscription of boys and girls.
Then Charles Taylor, whose war to rule Liberia dragged in nations across West Africa, firmly told a war tribunal: "I did not and could not have committed these acts."
The judge accepted that as a not-guilty plea, and with that the first African president to be brought before such a court had been arraigned.
Taylor's appearance — three years after he was indicted and a week after he tried to escape being handed over to the court where he had been indicted for supporting Sierra Leonean rebels— forced him "to face the people of Sierra Leone, against whom he is accused of committing heinous atrocities," the court's chief prosecutor, Desmond de Silva, said in a statement Monday.
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De Silva added that a precedent had been set: "Those who commit atrocities and violate international humanitarian law will be held accountable, no matter how rich, powerful or feared people may be — no one is above the law."
After accepting Taylor's plea, Justice Richard Lussick instructed aides to set a date for the trial to begin. No date was immediately set.
De Silva has said the defense could be given months to prepare. He noted prosecutors took two years to compile their evidence, which defense lawyers will now have to review.
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