Taylor to be kept in high security prison, almost alone
Former Liberian President Charles Taylor may soon be moved to a high security prison in the Netherlands that should withstand even his notorious ability for escape.
A major hurdle to Taylor’s transfer to The Hague was overcome yesterday when Britain agreed to imprison him if he is convicted of war crimes stemming from Sierra Leone’s long and brutal civil war.
The UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone asked to stage the trial in The Hague, fearing it could destabilise the region if it were conducted in Africa.
Taylor is expected to be transferred from detention in Freetown, Sierra Leone, shortly after the UN Security Council adopts a resolution asking the Netherlands to host the trial.
The two courts need to work out arrangements, including the finances, for Sierra Leone judges and support staff to use one of the two recently completed ICC courtrooms in former offices of a telecom company on the edge of The Hague.
Taylor’s first stop will be the ICC detention unit, a 12-cell wing in a maximum security Dutch prison complex in the coastal suburb of Scheveningen. He will be virtually alone.
The International Criminal Court has one suspect in detention, Thomas Lubanga, a former Congolese warlord arrested last year and transferred from Kinshasa to The Hague in March.
It was unclear whether the two prisoners would be allowed to socialise in common areas, such as the exercise yard or gym.
Five other suspected war criminals from Uganda have been indicted, but there was no indication they would be arrested in the near future and brought to The Hague.
The UN war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, which tried former President Slobodan Milosevic, maintains a separate bloc of 84 cells in the same prison complex. Milosevic died there on March 11 of a heart attack.
The prison is surrounded by high walls and electronic surveillance. Outside the walls, armed Dutch police patrol the perimeter at least three times per hour.
An independent study of the facility following Milosevic’s death recommended that security at the Yugoslav wing be reviewed, since many of the detainees “have both money and trained personnel at their disposal” to stage a prison break.
Taylor’s detention arouses extraordinary nervousness. He escaped from a Massachusetts jail in 1985 where he was being held for allegedly embezzling money in Liberia.
Three men, an American and two Sierra Leoneans, were arrested in April for allegedly plotting to free Taylor from detention in Freetown after they were discovered photographing the compound where he was being held.
