Special Court for Sierra Leone
The Office of the Prosecutor

PRESS RELEASE
Freetown, Sierra Leone, 5 March 2004

Prosecution Investigators, UNMIL, and Liberian Officials Jointly Search Taylor Properties

Today investigators from the Office of the Prosecutor at the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL), together with police officers of the International Police Service of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) and Monrovia city court security officers searched properties of former Liberian President Charles Taylor. Investigators searched Taylor's former residence in Congo Town and his former offices at the Executive Mansion.

Investigators conducted the search as authorized by the SCSL's warrant for Taylor's arrest. They were looking for information to further support strong evidence that led to Taylor's indictment last year.

On 7 March 2003, the Prosecutor indicted Charles Taylor on 17 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including charges of murder, rape, and terrorism. Taylor resigned as president of Liberia on 11 August 2003 and fled to Nigeria, where he remains a fugitive from justice.

The Special Court for Sierra Leone, seated in Freetown, is an international war crimes tribunal jointly formed by the government of Sierra Leone and the United Nations. Its mandate is to bring to justice those individuals found to bear the greatest responsibility for war crimes, crimes against humanity and other serious violations of international humanitarian law committed during the conflict in Sierra Leone after 30 November 1996.

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