December 4, 2003
International police body Interpol has issued a global notice for the arrest of former Liberian President Charles Taylor, currently in exile in Nigeria.
Mr Taylor has been indicted for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity by a UN-backed court in Sierra Leone. Interpol's "red notice" is not an arrest warrant but national police can use it to make a provisional arrest. It was posted on Interpol's website with a photo of Mr Taylor in suit and a warning that he "may be dangerous".
Tight security
Mr Taylor went into exile in August as part of a plan to end Liberia's civil war. Security is said to be tight around Mr Taylor's compound in Calabar, in south-eastern Nigeria. Recently, Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo said he would send Mr Taylor back to Liberia, if the new government there wanted him to face trial. Nigeria had previously said it would not send Mr Taylor to be tried by the UN-backed court in Sierra Leone. Mr Taylor was indicted while he was still Liberia's president. The court is seeking to try him on charges that he armed and trained Sierra Leone's rebels who waged a campaign of rape and dismemberment during the country's civil war. As a former warlord, he was also involved in the bloodshed in his own country.
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