Former Liberian president Charles Taylor has been sentenced to 50 years in prison for supporting fighters to commit atrocities during an 11-year civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone.
The Special Court for Sierra Leone found Taylor guilty last month on 11 charges of aiding and abetting the rebels in Sierra Leone who murdered and mutilated thousands during their country’s brutal civil war in return for blood diamonds.
The decade-long war, which left over 50,000 people dead, ended in 2002.
Presiding Judge Richard Lussick said the crimes Taylor was convicted of were of the "utmost gravity in terms of scale and brutality."
The 64-year-old warlord-turned-president is the first former head of state convicted by an international war crimes court since the second World War.
AP