Son of ex-Liberian leader charged with torture

MIAMI – The son of former Liberian President Charles Taylor was indicted on US charges of committing torture as chief of a violent paramilitary unit during his father’s regime, marking the first time a 12-year-old federal anti-torture law has ever been used, officials said.

Charles McArthur Emmanuel, also known as Charles “Chuckie” Taylor Jr and Roy M Belfast Jr, was charged in a three-count federal indictment Wednesday with committing torture overseas as a US citizen as well as with conspiracy. He was born in Boston in 1977 to a former girlfriend of Taylor, who was a college student there at the time.Because Emmanuel, 29, was born in the United States, prosecutors charged him under a 1994 law making it a crime for a US citizen to commit torture or war crimes abroad.Emmanuel is already in custody in Miami awaiting sentencing for falsifying his father’s name to get a passport he used to enter the US from Trinidad in March.Alice Fisher, assistant US attorney general for the Justice Department’s criminal division, said the indictment was the first time charges under the torture laws had been brought.Emmanuel faces a potential life prison sentence.”Crimes such as these will not go unanswered,” Fisher said at a news conference in Washington with Miami US Attorney R.Alexander Acosta and Julie L Myers, head of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”This is a clear message that the United States will not be a safe haven for human rights violators,” Myers said.Emmanuel headed the Anti-Terrorist Unit in Liberia after his father became president in 1997.The indictment says that on July 24 2002, the unit and National Police abducted an unnamed man from his home, and Emmanuel was seen interrogating him at Taylor’s presidential residence, known as Whiteflower.Later, according to the indictment, the man was taken to another residence where Emmanuel and others allegedly burned him with a hot iron, forced him at gunpoint to hold scalding water, used electric shocks on his genitalia and other body parts and rubbed salt into this wounds.Emmanuel’s court-appointed lawyer, Miguel Caridad, declined comment on the new charges.Nampa-APHe was born in Boston in 1977 to a former girlfriend of Taylor, who was a college student there at the time.Because Emmanuel, 29, was born in the United States, prosecutors charged him under a 1994 law making it a crime for a US citizen to commit torture or war crimes abroad.Emmanuel is already in custody in Miami awaiting sentencing for falsifying his father’s name to get a passport he used to enter the US from Trinidad in March.Alice Fisher, assistant US attorney general for the Justice Department’s criminal division, said the indictment was the first time charges under the torture laws had been brought.Emmanuel faces a potential life prison sentence.”Crimes such as these will not go unanswered,” Fisher said at a news conference in Washington with Miami US Attorney R.Alexander Acosta and Julie L Myers, head of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”This is a clear message that the United States will not be a safe haven for human rights violators,” Myers said.Emmanuel headed the Anti-Terrorist Unit in Liberia after his father became president in 1997.The indictment says that on July 24 2002, the unit and National Police abducted an unnamed man from his home, and Emmanuel was seen interrogating him at Taylor’s presidential residence, known as Whiteflower.Later, according to the indictment, the man was taken to another residence where Emmanuel and others allegedly burned him with a hot iron, forced him at gunpoint to hold scalding water, used electric shocks on his genitalia and other body parts and rubbed salt into this wounds.Emmanuel’s court-appointed lawyer, Miguel Caridad, declined comment on the new charges.Nampa-AP