Charles Taylor (Liberian politician), Date of Birth, Place of Birth
TweetCharles Taylor (Liberian politician)
Liberian former politician who was the 22nd President of Liberia
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Arthington, Montserrado County, Liberia
About Charles Taylor (Liberian politician)
- Charles McArthur Ghankay Taylor (born 28 January 1948) is a Liberian former politician and convicted war criminal who served as the 22nd President of Liberia from 2 August 1997 until his resignation on 11 August 2003.Born in Arthington, Montserrado County, Liberia, Taylor earned a degree at Bentley College in the United States before returning to Liberia to work in the government of Samuel Doe.
- After being removed for embezzlement, he eventually arrived in Libya, where he was trained as a guerrilla fighter.
- He returned to Liberia in 1989 as the head of a Libyan-backed rebel group, the National Patriotic Front of Liberia, to overthrow the Doe government, initiating the First Liberian Civil War (1989–96).
- Following Doe's execution, Taylor gained control of a large portion of the country and became one of the most prominent warlords in Africa.
- Following a peace deal that ended the war, Taylor was elected president in the 1997 general election.During his term of office, Taylor was accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity as a result of his involvement in the Sierra Leone Civil War (1991–2002).
- Domestically, opposition to his government grew, culminating in the outbreak of the Second Liberian Civil War (1999–2003).
- By 2003, Taylor had lost control of much of the countryside and was formally indicted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone.
- That year, he resigned, as a result of growing international pressure, and went into exile in Nigeria.
- In 2006, the newly elected President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, formally requested his extradition.
- He was detained by UN authorities in Sierra Leone and then at the Penitentiary Institution Haaglanden in The Hague, awaiting trial by the Special Court.
- He was found guilty in April 2012 of all eleven charges levied by the Special Court, including terror, murder and rape.
- In May 2012, Taylor was sentenced to 50 years in prison.
- Reading the sentencing statement, Presiding Judge Richard Lussick said: "The accused has been found responsible for aiding and abetting as well as planning some of the most heinous and brutal crimes in recorded human history."
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