Former Liberian president Charles Taylor has appealed last year’s verdict at The Hague, which saw him sentenced to 50 years in prison for aiding and abetting rebels in Sierra Leone during the country’s brutal civil war.
His legal representatives appealed on more than 40 grounds, saying that the verdict was based on "uncorroborated hearsay evidence".
"The colossal judgment, over 2,500 pages in length, is plagued throughout by internal inconsistencies, misstatements of evidence and conflicting findings," his lawyer Morris Anyah said in court papers, quoted by AFP news agency.
Christopher Gosnell, another of his lawyers, said in court: "There is nothing in the trial chamber's findings that would have allowed it to find that Charles Taylor knew that specific weapons or ammunition he had some role in providing would be used in a crime as opposed to a lawful purpose."
The prosecution on the other hand is attempting to increase Taylor’s sentence to 80 years, arguing that he not only aided the rebels, but also gave orders to them, a charge he was found not guilty of in last year’s trial.
