Former Liberian leader arrives for continuation of war crimes trial

(21 Jun 2006)

Rotterdam
1. Wide of police motorcade arriving at Rotterdam airport
2. UN-chartered plane with former Liberian President Charles Taylor flying into Rotterdam airport
3. Various of plane landing
4. Pan along fence of plane standing on runway with police cars surrounding it
5. Police car through fence
6. Wide of Taylor and plain clothes policemen disembarking plane
7. Police man getting onto motorbike
8. Pan along police vehicles, vehicle with Taylor following motorbikes
9. Wide of motorcade leaving airport

Scheveningen
10. Motorcade arriving at maximum-security prison in Scheveningen
11. Medium of police vehicle in front of prison with gates closing
12. Tracking shot from above motorcade entering prison with Taylor in one of the black vans
13. Prison view from above
14. Pan along prison complex
15. Wide of prison cells
16. Medium of prison cell windows

STORYLINE

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor arrived in the Netherlands on Tuesday for trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the death, rape or mutilation of hundreds of thousands of people in West Africa.

Taylor's UN-chartered plane landed in Rotterdam after a direct flight from Sierra Leone, where he had been in detention since March 29.

Taylor, his hands cuffed in front of him, was led off the plane by several people in plain clothes and whisked away in a black Mercedes van, flanked by five uniformed police motorcyclists.

He was being taken to a maximum-security Dutch prison outside The Hague where he will be held in a wing leased by the International Criminal Court.

Taylor's successor as Liberia's president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, had called for the trial to be moved to Europe, fearing the sight of him in the dock could spark unrest in Africa.

The charges Taylor faces stem from his alleged backing of Sierra Leonean rebels, who terrorised victims by chopping off their arms, legs, ears and lips during that country's 1991-2002 civil war.

He has also been linked to violence in his homeland and elsewhere in West Africa.

Taylor has pleaded not guilty to 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

He faces life imprisonment if convicted.

The Netherlands has agreed to host the trial on the condition that a third country jails Taylor if he is convicted or takes him in if acquitted.

Several countries refused, but Britain announced last week it would jail him if he were convicted.

Taylor has objected to the move, saying it would be difficult for his witnesses to travel to testify and for his family to travel to lend him support.

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