Taylor Accused over Attempt to Kill Guinea Leader

By Dino Mahtani

Financial Times April 27, 2005

The chief prosecutor of a UN-backed war crimes court in Sierra Leone has accused Charles Taylor, exiled former Liberian president, of masterminding an assassination attempt on the president of neighbouring Guinea in January this year. David Crane, a former US Defense Department lawyer, said he had evidence that Mr Taylor backed the gunmen who fired on President Lansana Conté's convoy in Conakry, the Guinean capital. "His assassination attempt on Conté marks him as a true threat to international peace and security," Mr Crane said.

The Sierra Leone special court has already indicted Mr Taylor on 17 counts of crimes against humanity for his role in supporting Sierra Leone's rebels in a war that caused tens of thousands of deaths. Mr Taylor has yet to face trial. The warlord-turned-president was at the centre of more than a decade of conflict in Liberia that spilled into neighbouring west African countries. He agreed to step down as Liberia's president in 2003 when Nigeria offered him asylum to prevent further bloodshed as rebels surrounded Monrovia, the Liberian capital. More...