Mr. Taylor, who became president of Liberia in 1997, was charged with war crimes by an international court in 2003. He resigned and fled to Nigeria that same year, where he lived in a villa under the threat of an international arrest warrant and a $2 million price on his head, courtesy of the US. The Nigerian government refused to arrest him and said it would only turn him over to Liberian authorities if the president requested they do so. When he eventually did, Taylor disappeared. He was apprehended trying to leave the country and was turned over to authorities in Sierra Leone, where the international court that indicted him on war crimes charges was based. He now awaits a final decision on his war crimes trial from The Hague in The Netherlands.
Jerry Lampen/AP
