Miami Grand Jury Is Asked To Indict Son of Former Liberian President

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An American grand jury is being asked to indict the son of a former Liberian president, Charles Taylor, on charges of committing torture as chief of a violent paramilitary unit during his father’s regime, American law enforcement officials said yesterday.

If the indictment is returned, it would mark the first time a 12-year-old federal anti-torture law has ever been used, according to two federal law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of grandjury secrecy rules.

Charles McArthur Emmanuel, also known as Charles “Chuckie” Taylor Jr., can be charged under law because he is an American citizen.

Mr. Emmanuel, 29, was born in Boston in 1977 to a former girlfriend of Mr. Taylor, who was a college student there at the time.

Mr. Emmanuel is already in custody in Miami awaiting sentencing for falsifying his father’s name to get a passport he used to enter America from Trinidad in March.

Mr. Emmanuel headed the Anti-Terrorist Unit in Liberia after his father became president in 1997.

Human Rights Watch, a nonprofit international rights group, and Liberian witnesses have said the 800-man unit was involved in murders, torture, beatings, and other abuse of civilians, recruitment of child soldiers, and looting.

His father, meanwhile, faces trial next spring in The Hague, Netherlands, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for allegedly overseeing the murder, rape, and mutilation of thousands of people during Sierra Leone’s bloody 10-year civil war, many hacked to death with machetes. Mr. Taylor has pleaded not guilty.


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