Man, 45, arrested in south London on suspicion of Liberian war crimes
An alleged war criminal has been arrested in London in connection to offences said to have been committed during the first and second Liberian civil wars.
He was detained in south-east London at around 7.20am today and has been taken into custody at a central London police station.
Police said the arrest follows an allegation of offences relating to the two conflicts which raged in the west African nation between 1989 and 2003.
The Met have released few further details about the man, only confirming he is 45 years old and was arrested by officers from the force’s war crimes team on suspicion of war crimes, contrary to Section 51 of the International Criminal Court Act 2001.
Up to a quarter of a million people were killed in the Liberian civil wars, while thousands more were mutilated and raped.
The conflicts started in 1989 when minister Charles Taylor started an uprising in a bid to topple the government.
Backed by a rebel group, the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), he gained control of large areas of the country and rose to become one of Africa’s most prominent warlords.
The NPFL has been accused of a wide range of human rights abuses and the large numbers of deaths during the conflict eventually led to the involvement of the UN and the Economic Community of West African States.
A final peace agreement led to the election of Taylor as president of Liberia in 1997.
A second civil war broke out in 1999 and Taylor was forced into exile in 2003.
He was later jailed for committing war crimes in neighbouring Sierra Leone.
Officers are searching an address in south-east London and inquiries are ongoing.
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