‘Chuckie’ Taylor is said to have laughed as prisons were beaten and raped by his ‘Demon Forces’ paramilitaries

The American-born son of former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor has been ordered to pay more than £14m in compensation to five people tortured during the West African country’s civil war.

A judge in the US made the order a year after the same Miami court sentenced Charles McArthur Emmanuel Taylor, known as Chuckie, to 97 years in prison for his role in one of Africa’s bloodiest chapters; he was the first person to be convicted by a federal court of committing offences outside the US.

The 32-year-old led the notorious Anti-Terrorist Unit, a band of pro-government paramilitaries nicknamed the Demon Forces who carried out murder and torture during his father’s presidency from 1997 to 2003.

Witnesses at his criminal trial in 2008 spoke of hearing him laugh as prisoners were abused and how the Anti-Terrorist Unit “did things like beating people to death, burying them alive, rape – the most horrible kind of war crimes”.

His father, also Charles Taylor, is currently on trial at the Hague facing 11 counts of crimes against humanity. The former warlord’s regime was accused of involvement in murder, rape, gun running and diamond smuggling in both Liberia and neighbouring Sierra Leone. The trial – in which Taylor denies all the charges – has been going on since June 2007.

“Chuckie” Taylor was the result of a teenage romance when the former president was at college in Boston, Massachusetts, and lived in Florida with his mother until he was a teenager when he went to live with his father in Liberia. He was first arrested on a fake passport charge at Miami airport in 2006 but later indicted under the 12-year-old anti-torture law, the first time it had been used.

This latest civil case heard that five Liberians had testified before the court that they had been tortured and abused by the Anti-Terrorist Unit.

They described being held in jungle pits filled chest-high with water, being exposed to electric shocks to the genitals and other body parts and witnessing the killing of others by ­Taylor’s men.

At the end of the civil trial last week, Taylor, who is currently in prison in Illinois, dismissed the torture allegations as deceptive propaganda.

However, human rights groups have welcomed this latest ruling against him. They say it is a move that might serve as a warning to others who commit similar abuses that they will be held accountable for their actions.

A spokesman for United States immigration and customs enforcement said that it was a “clear message the US would not be a safe haven for human rights violators”.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk