Charles Taylor: timeline

December 1989: Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia rebel group
launches armed uprising in Liberia, sparking a conflict that leaves 200,000
dead.

1991-2002: Sierra
Leone
civil war.

August 2, 1997: Taylor elected Liberia’s president following years of
civil war.

March 3, 2003: Special Court for Sierra Leone indicts Taylor on charges
including murder, rape, sexual slavery, conscripting child soldiers and
terrorising civilians for his support of rebels during Sierra Leone civil
war. Indictment is unsealed on June 4, 2003, during Taylor’s first overseas
trip since his indictment.

August 11, 2003: Taylor resigns and flies into exile in Nigeria.

May 31, 2004: Appeals judges reject Taylor’s claim that he was immune
from prosecution because he was a serving head of state when indicted.

Late March 2006: Taylor disappears after Nigeria agrees, amid
international pressure, that he should stand trial.

March 29, 2006: Taylor arrested as he tries to cross border from
Nigeria to Cameroon. Is transferred to the special court in Sierra Leone.

Then-prosecutor Desmond De Silva says Taylor’s arrest “sends out the
clear message that no matter how rich, powerful or feared people may be –
the law is above them.”

June 20, 2006: Taylor transferred to UN detention block in The Hague to
await trial.

June 4, 2007: Trial starts with prosecution’s opening statement. Taylor
fires his lawyer and boycotts the proceedings.

January 7, 2008: Trial resumes with new defence lawyer after a 6-month
delay.

June 13, 2009: Taylor begins his defence.

August 2010: Naomi Campbell and Mia Farrow give evidence at Taylor’s
trial.

The supermodel fails to link Taylor conclusively to diamonds she received
during a stay as Nelson Mandela’s guest in South Africa in 1997.

March 11, 2011: Trial phase closes as judges retire to deliberate.

April 26, 2012: Verdict due.

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