Sierra Leone / International Criminal Court

Trial of Liberia's Taylor Moved to New Court
Agence France-Presse dispatch on Google.com, May 13, 2010
"Former Liberian president Charles Taylor's war crimes trial is to be moved from a courtroom of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to the venue of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), also in The Hague, the court trying him said Thursday. The move, effective from next Monday, 'is an acknowledgement of the increasing scheduling difficulties with ICC trials,' said a statement by the Special Court for Sierra Leone. 'Under the agreement, the Special Court will pay for all trial-related costs. Mr. Taylor's trial continues to be conducted by the Special Court.' The former warlord has been on trial since January 2008 on charges linked to the brutal 1991-2001 civil war in neighbouring Sierra Leone. His trial was moved from Sierra Leone to the Netherlands in 2006 because of fears that his presence in the African country could destabilise the region. Taylor would continue to be detained at the UN detention unit at Scheveningen in The Hague, said the statement. The ICC, the world's only independent, permanent tribunal trying genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, has three of its own trials running simultaneously. The STL, a UN tribunal set up in 2007 to try the suspected killers of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri, still has no suspects in custody."
[n.b. This is the complete text of the dispatch.]