You Will Remain In UK Prison,Court Tells Ex-Liberian President Charles Taylor

Ex-Liberian President Charles Taylor has been ordered to serve the rest of his jail term in the UK, after losing a request to be transferred to Rwanda.

Taylor had argued that he was being denied his rights to a family life, because his wife and children had not been granted UK visas. But judges rejected this argument, saying they had not properly applied.

Taylor argued he was being held “effectively in isolation” because he was “too much of a target and too vulnerable” to be kept with other inmates of the Frankland prison in the northern English city of Durham. Stating he wants to be on the African continent, where people would share a “cultural affinity” with him, BBC says.

The court however turned all his appeals down stressing that prisoners did not have the right to choose their place of incarceration. Judges also told his lawyers to ask his family to re-apply for UK Visas.

It will be recalled that a UN-backed court convicted him of war crimes over his support for rebels who committed atrocities in Sierra Leone years ago.