Amsterdam - Prosecutors have demanded an 80-year jail term for former
Liberian president Charles Taylor, who last week was convicted of aiding
and abetting crimes against humanity, before a sentencing decision that
is expected to set a precedent.
Taylor's sentencing, on 30 May,
will be closely watched for its impact on other heads of state involved
in cases at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, where
Laurent Gbagbo, the former president of Ivory Coast, is due to face
charges of crimes against humanity.
In a brief filed to judges at
a special court in The Hague on Thursday, the prosecution said Taylor's
position as a head of state, and the "length of time during which the
crimes continued", were aggravating circumstances that necessitated a
lengthy term.
Last week judges ruled that Taylor, 64, had helped
the militias which, during the 11-year civil war in Sierra Leone, had
perpetrated acts of terror against the civilian population,
disembowelling and mutilating their victims, and recruiting child
soldiers.
Until now, the longest sentence imposed by the Special
Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) was one of 52 years, handed down to Issa
Sesay, a commander in the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) militia that
was responsible for some of the war's worst brutality.
The
prosecution had sought to have Taylor convicted of direct criminal
responsibility for human rights violations committed during the course
of the conflict, but judges found that Taylor had not been in a position
of direct command.
"The SCSL has given huge sentences, but that
would be difficult for Taylor, given the way judges characterised his
role," said William Schabas, professor of law at Middlesex University.
FEW precedents
For
now, there are few precedents. While Karl Doenitz, the German admiral,
was German president in the final days of World War II, his 10-year
sentence was handed down for his activities as a military commander.
Heads
of state who have been tried and sentenced, albeit by national courts,
include Alberto Fujimori, who received 25 years for his role in
kidnappings and killings committed while he was president of Peru, and
Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi dictator, who was hanged.
"The whole
field [of international criminal justice] is in disarray over
sentencing," said Jens David Ohlin, professor of law at Cornell
University.
"There is quite a debate in our field over whether
the central issue is Charles Taylor's position as a former head of state
or whether it's more important that he was only an accomplice in these
crimes," Ohlin added.
"In theory accomplices should receive lower
sentences than perpetrators, but if the crimes are so severe that only a
life sentence will capture that level of guilt, then there is an
argument that even accomplices should receive a long sentence."
The
Sierra Leone court has handed down far more severe sentences than the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), whose
sentences have topped out at 30 years apart from one life sentence.
"In Europe, there is a mindset that excessively long sentences trigger human rights concerns," Ohlin said.
The
ICC, which has been heavily influenced by the practices evolved over 19
years by the ICTY, was likely to follow this pattern of milder
sentencing, he said.
Judges are due to sentence Taylor at the end
of this month, after receiving a sentencing brief from his defence
counsel. Both sides are expected to appeal.
- Reuters