The Hague - The Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) adjourned the trial against Charles Taylor for one week Monday upon request of the former Liberian President's defence team. Monday was due to be the first day of the defence team's re-examination of the former Liberian president, who is standing trial at Hague-based SCSL on charges of
war crimes and crimes against humanity.
On Friday, the prosecution concluded Taylor's cross-examination, which began on July 14, 2009.
However, at the hearing Taylor's defence team said it was not ready and requested an adjournment.
Speaking to the German Press Agency dpa,
court spokesman Solomon Moriba confirmed "the defence is to begin its re-examination of Mr. Taylor on February 15."
Taylor is charged with having orchestrated war crimes and crimes against humanity during the 11-year civil war in neighbouring Sierra Leone that started in 1991 and claimed an estimated 120,000 lives.
Taylor's attorneys also told the judges their re-examination would take one week, following which other defence witnesses would be called.
Spokesperson Moriba said the defence team, which initially planned to call some 200 defence witnesses, was now in the process of "scaling down" the number of witnesses and would present the court with a final list "by the end of next week".
Taylor is alleged to have backed and armed the rebel forces in Sierra Leone to gain control of the country's diamond mines. In 2003, he fled to
Nigeria as rebels closed in on the Liberian capital.
He is the first former African leader and the second former head of state, after the former Yugoslavia's Slobodan Milosevic, to be tried by an international war crimes court. He denies all charges.
The court, set up jointly by Sierra Leone and the UN, is mandated to try those who bear the greatest responsibility for serious violations law in the country since November 30, 1996.
Taylor's trial was moved from Sierra Leone's capital Freetown to the
Netherlands for
security reasons. The trial of the former Liberian president is taking place at the ICC premises.
