Court asked to acquit Taylor on Sierra Leone war crime charges

Lawyers for former Liberian president Charles Taylor asked a UN-backed court to acquit him on charges of war crimes, saying prosecutors had not done enough to prove he committed the atrocities he is accused of.

He has pleaded not guilty to 11 charges that he controlled and armed rebels who murdered, raped, mutilated and enslaved civilians during the decade-long civil war in Sierra Leone that ended in 2002.

Taylor, 61, has been on trial at theSpecial Court for Sierra Leone since 2007, though proceedings are taking place in The Hague for fear of inciting local instability.

UN prosecutors, who finished presenting their case in January, say Taylor masterminded crimes in Sierra Leone from his power base in neighbouring Liberia, where he was a warlord who rose to become president from 1997-2003.

He is accused oftrying to increase his sway in the region by fanning the flames of the conflict in the West African country. Prosecutors say he recruited and supplied soldiers including children to the Revolutionary United Front rebel army, notorious for using machetes to maim thousands of victims, chopping off their hands, legs, lips, ears and breasts.

No denial of atrocities

Taylor's defence lawyers did not deny that atrocities had been committed in Sierra Leone, but said there was not enough evidence linking Taylor to those atrocities.

"The problem with this case since its inception has been the linkage evidence the quality or the lack thereof linking Mr. Taylor to the alleged offences," Taylor's defence lawyer Morris Anyah told the three-judge panel at the Hague-based court.

If judges reject Taylor's request, his lawyers will begin a full, formal defence this summer, when they say he will be their first witness.

Prosecutors are expected to respond to the defence's arguments Thursday.

An estimated half-million people were killed in Sierra Leone's 1991-2002 war, marked by brutal attacks on civilians and fuelled by an illicit diamond market.