Taylor trial update

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor’s defense lawyers had requested that the Special Court for Sierra Leone drop war crimes’ charges. And, today the Court responded, “uh…no”: 

“The prosecution has produced evidence capable of supporting a conviction of the accused … based on his participation in a joint criminal enterprise,” judge Richard Lussick said.

Taylor, if you’ll recall, is charged with 11 counts of “murder, rape, conscripting child soldiers and sexual slavery” during the Second Liberian Civil War in which more than 250,000 people were killed.