Charles Taylor lied in his testimony when he told Special Court for Sierra Leone judges in The Hague that he had not negotiated to have a senior Sierra Leonean rebel commander, who was based in Liberia, taken back to Sierra Leone, Mr. Taylor’s 13th defense witness agreed with prosecutors today in The Hague. Another defense witness, who commenced her testimony today, denied allegations that she cooked the liver of a Liberian politician who was allegedly murdered by rebel forces loyal to Mr. Taylor in 1997.
Mr. Taylor’s 13th defense witness, a former executive member of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), who has been testifying with partial protective measures today concluded his testimony, during which he agreed withprosecutors that Mr. Taylor lied under oath when he testified that he had not spoken to RUF leaders to take Sam Bockarie back to Sierra Leone after the RUF commander had relocated to Liberia in 1999. Mr. Bockarie, who was a senior commander in the RUF, fell out with the rebel group’s leader Foday Sankoh in 1999 and relocated to Liberia with several forces loyal to him. They were all granted Liberian citizenship and were enlisted into Mr. Taylor’s security forces. After the arrest of RUF leader Mr. Sankoh by the government of Sierra Leone in 2000, Issa Sesay became interim leader of the group. Prosecution witnesses testified that Mr. Taylor tried negotiating with Mr. Sesay to allow Mr. Bockarie to go back to Sierra Leone and rejoin the RUF. Mr. Taylor, while testifying as a witness in his own defense denied this claim by witnesses. Today, the former president’s own witness, DCT-292, told the court that it was in his presence that Mr. Taylor had tried talking to Mr. Sesay to allow Mr. Bockarie to go back to Sierra Leone and rejoin the RUF. Prosecution counsel Nicholas Koumjian asked the witness whether Mr. Taylor had lied to the judges when he denied saying this. The witness agreed with Mr. Koumjian that that was the case.
“Mr. Taylor was asked by his counsel “now, did you suggest that Mosquito [Sam Bockarie] be taken back,” and Mr. Taylor said “no, Idid not suggest that.” Mr. Witness, Charles Taylor lied to these judges because you were present when he asked Issa Sesay to take Sam Bockarie back to Sierra Leone, correct?” Mr. Koumjian asked the witness.
“Yes my lord,” the witness responded.
Another witness, a Liberian national, Mrs. Annie Yeney commenced her testimony today as Mr. Taylor’s 14th witness. Mrs. Yeney told the court about how she joined Mr. Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) willingly when the war started in Liberia, having seen how former Liberian president Samuel Doe had persecuted people from Nimba County. In her testimony, Mrs. Yeney told the court that prosecution witness and former member of the NPFL, Joseph Zig Zag Marzah, lied when he told the court about how she had been engaged in cannibalism with Mr. Taylor. Mr. Marzah in his testimony told the court that on Mr. Taylor’s orders, when former Liberian politician Sam Dokie was killed in 1997, his liver was removed, cooked by one “Annie Yeney” (the current witness) and eaten together with Mr. Taylor. Mrs. Yeney denied ever engaging in such a practice.
“It is not true. That is what we call assassination of character, for a woman like me to cook a human being, it is not true. I am speaking to my God I serve, He knows my heart,” Mrs. Yeney told the court.
Mrs. Yeney took some moments to sob when speaking about Mr. Dokie’s death because according to her, Mr. Dokie’s wife was her sister who was also assassinated alongside the Liberian politician. She said she was informed that it was Mr. Marzah who had killed her sister and her brother-in-law.
Mrs. Yeney explained that it was Mr. Marzah’s practice to eat human beings and brag about it, telling people that he did not have a jail to keep his enemies.
“Zig Zag Marzah used to say these things in Gbarngha. He used to say he hasn’t got a jail house, when he arrests any war criminals, he’ll eat them,” she said.
Describing Mr. Marzah, the witness told the court that “Zig Zag Marzah used to rape, he used to steal.”
“Zig Zag Marzah was not correct in his head, he was half mad, he used to naked himself and run in the streets,” she said.
Mrs. Yeney’s description of Mr. Marzah corroborates what Mr. Taylor and his 11th witness Timan Edward Zammy told the court about the prosecution witness. Defense lawyers concluded Mrs. Yeney’s direct-examination within a couple of hours and prosecutors immediately commenced her cross-examination.
Mrs. Yeney’s cross-examination continues tomorrow.
Okay, here is the bottom line.
Taylor lied, Zig Zag Marzah lied, and Mrs. Yeneh lied…so no one is telling the truth and no one can be trusted.
Common denominator based on these lies – they were rebel, vindictive, disruptive, and carnivores.
Isn’t this boring……?
Tracey,
Did the defense re-direct the witness on this lie Mr. Taylor was to have told the judges in court?
Ken, the re-examination of this witness was done both in open and closed session. For the portion of the cross-examination that was done in open session, defense lawyers did not ask anything about this particular issue, ie, the witness’s agreement that Mr. Taylor lied about telling Issa Sesay to take Sam Bockarie back to Sierra Leone. I cannot say whether the issue was raised while re-examination was done in closed session.
Alpha
I was able to watch the coverage of Mrs. Annie Yeney testimony on today. Alpha covers it well but I want to add some pertinent facts about the testimony. Ziz Zag Marzah apparently forgot in his lies on the stand that Annie was still alive and well. Also he forgot that Annie Yeney was the sister of Sam Dokie’s wife. Now to say that Annie Yeney cooked her sister’s husband’s liver and they ate it with Charles Taylor is beyond belief. Not even Fallah, MsTeage or Ziggy Silas will believe this.
Secondly in todays testimony Annie Yeney stated that Jackson F. Doe was her uncle. For Mrs. Yeney to come and testify about the events of the Dokie murders and also that she is a niece of Jackson F. Doe makes her a strong witness for the Defense. As we all know the prosecution has been portraying Mr. Taylor as the mastermind of the Dokie and Jackson Doe murders.
DCT-292 was a very good witness for the Defense. He articulated his time and the desires of the RUF very well. Once again another RUF insider has stated that Charles Taylor was never in charge of the RUF. On the point about Charles Taylor lying . If I were the witness I would have said that Mr. Taylor may have mispoken. Given the hundreds of meetings Taylor has had and also the many years ago of events it would be easy to forget some of the details. Never the less it is clear to all fair minded persons and people who want true justice that the defense has already provided enough reasonable doubt for Mr. Taylor to acquited on all eleven counts.
Ahh Brava!! A defense witness testifies DIRECTLY against the one he’s to defend? Wait are these people being debriefed before they speak.
I keep saying LET THE WITNESSES talk.
Yes I know Taylorist …..what does this have to do with Taylor guilt? If you are trying to impeach a person’s character this is a good way to do it. Have someone who is suppose to corroborate your story testify to the contrary and agree with the prosecutor that you’re lying!! EXCELLENT, Keep the witnesses talking Keep them talking MR. DEFENDER!!!!
Great day for the PROSECUTION.
As far as Zig Zag Marzah, home boy is a nut! I don’t put anything pass him or Taylor, Mrs. Yeney talking about that was my sister….as if people weren’t participating in crimes against their own family members. Taylor himself said it, no war is “civilized” when he was confronted with “VIDEO” evidence of his boys eating a human heart….These nut jobs were all part of the madness..
I BELIEVE i.e, my opinion; that Taylor is a murderer, a rapist a cannibalist, a greedy buffon, a liar, a cheap disgraceful excuse of a president (thank goodness that so call presidency is over) and these testimonies just keep revealing his true nature; pealing back one onion peel at a time. I enjoy reading the DEFENSE testimonies more and more!!!!!!
This made my day!!!
Msteage,
So you agree that the witness DCT-292 is telling the truth when he said that Charles Taylor did not control the RUF? Remember you can’t pick and choose on topics the witnesses say are true and which ones are false to make your case against Charles Taylor stronger.
AKI,
Don’t put words in my mouth. I can’t pick and choose, lol…that was a halirious one! I believe that Taylor controlled RUF, and led the murder of thousands of innocent Sierra Leonean, that is what I believe. And I hope that he pay. If some Liberians want him to walk free for what he did to us, then whatever to that but. He was arrogant enough to take his mess to Sierra Leone, and thought no one was watching, well guess what Aki….enough said.
I hope that was clear enough for you!
Alpha, Tracey,
It is no longer surprising that we the readers of the surmaries on this site, can now accurately predict the headlines of your summary. I think this is a sentimental headline. having regard to the fact that DCT 292 testified in direct for less than a court day but was cross examined for two days shows you that the prosecution could get nothing from this witness so they were looking for straws to grab in his testimony.
The prosecution spent less than 20 minutes to cross examine him on his claim to have gone to liberia with 30,000 Dollars in order to buy weapons for the RUF from ECOMOG – which was the crux of his testimony – because his testimony was water tight and they could not get any loophole in which to question the truthfulness of his testimony instead the prosecution spent a lot of the court’s time questioning him on issues outside the scope of direct examination and actually they were thoroughly lectured by the witness on the history and activities of the RUF. they could not challenge his credibility. The question now is this: Since the prosecution allegation boils down to the fact that the RUF was a branch of the NPFL and later the Liberian government under Mr Taylor, why would the RUF trade goods for ammunition in Guinea, or source for ammunition from ECOMOG in Liberia instead of simply asking Mr Taylor for such ammuntion?
Even a blind man can see the defence strategy in this case which is to raise REASONABLE DOUBT in the prosecution case. this the defence has been brilliantly doing systematically. The defence has shown that the RUF bought weapons from Guinea, they bought weapons from ECOMOG and in the coming weeks according to the witness order for next week, they are also going to parade witnesses that will show that the RUF also got weapons from the state house in Freetown after they have been flushed out from there by ECOMOG during the Junta period. so in view of the foregoing, if Mr Taylor had been providing weapons to the RUF why did they engage in sourcing weapons from elsewhere?
Zigzag Marzah has being progressively shown to be a lunatic and a hungry liar who was paid hundres of thousands of leones by the prosecution to come and give false testimony in this court – this was exposed during his cross examination and by the testimony of many defence witnesses including this current witness lady.
No amount of sensationalist headline alpha and his editorial team (We were once told by Tracy that not all headlines are chosen by Alpha) post on the summary, will change the facts in this case.
Sam,
Please REST YOUR CASE…..even the judges know it was IMPOSSIBLE for this one man was GOD.
Sam, you are probably the last man who still thinks Zigzag Marzah lied on himself and taylor about those wonderful meals they both had together on several occasions. One thing I know about Librians is that they may exaggerate events but never manufacture a story that never took place! In order words, Zizag stories are far from fictions, Sam, Research what I am saying about our native brothers! Zizag has nothing to gain from testifying. He knows what awaits him and therefore seem to want to repent, unlike your educated chief, who will prefy to carry his guilt to the grave!
Fallah,
Your post to sam reads to me like, you got some passion for Zig zag and will be willing to even live with him in your neighborhood if the opportunity comes up. Am I right????????
HMMM! I just had to post the following link. All alone, CGT haters are still arguing about Liberia’s Diamond. To all the misguided and uniform CGT haters, Read-on and LEARN : http://allafrica.com/stories/201006040756.html
Prince Tucker,
Your comment of 2010/06/07 has not been approved because the last sentence is stated as a fact when you have not referenced any evidence to that effect. You should either support it with evidence, state it as your opinion or something that is alleged. Once you do the necessary modifications, your comment will be approved.
Thanks,
Alpha
Noko4,
This one man was never GOD and can never be despite all attempts by him to play God. Have you forgotten his infamous statements ” if Henry Andrew propone this election not even God will save him”? ” I can get these cockroaches(referring to prominent Monrovia based politicians) anytime I want to even if they went under their mothers’ beds.” Who will dare say such thing unless you want to play God?
The man was the devil and if given another opportunity he will again become the Devil.