Lawyers for Liberia's former president Charles Taylor plan to appeal a 50-year prison sentence handed down to him by a special UN-backed court last month, a document before the court said on Tuesday.
"The defence
provides notice of its intention to file notice of appeal," said the
document, submitted to Special Court for Sierra Leone on Monday.
Taylor, 64, was
sentenced on 30 May for arming Sierra Leone's rebels in return for "blood
diamonds" during the country's brutal civil war which claimed 120 000
lives.
The court found
that Taylor was paid in diamonds mined in areas under control of Sierra Leone's
Revolutionary United Front rebels, who murdered, raped and mutilated their
victims while forcing children to fight and keeping sex slaves.
If his appeal
fails, Taylor will serve his sentence in a British jail under a 2007 deal which
resulted in his trial before the tribunal, based in Leidschendam just outside
The Hague.
The former
president was transferred to The Hague in mid-2006 amid fears that trying him
in Freetown would pose a security threat.
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