Court Calls for Arrest Of Liberian Ex-Leader

Taylor Seen as Flight Risk in Nigeria

Former Liberian president Charles Taylor faces charges of crimes against humanity in Sierra Leone. (Ben Curtis - AP)

ABUJA, Nigeria, March 26 -- The international war crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone urged Nigeria on Sunday to immediately arrest Charles Taylor, Liberia's exiled former president, because of fears the former president might flee to avoid trial for crimes against humanity.

Nigeria said Saturday it was ready to hand over Taylor, sending a warning to other warmongers on the continent.

"The watching world will wish to see Taylor held in Nigerian detention to avoid the possibility of him using his wealth and associates to slip away, with grave consequences to the stability of the region," the prosecutor of Sierra Leone's war tribunal, Desmond de Silva, said Sunday.

De Silva said he had sent a message asking Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo to arrest Taylor.

Taylor has been in exile in the southern Nigerian city of Calabar since being forced from power under a 2003 accord that ended a rebel assault on Liberia's capital.

Nigeria "has resisted persistent pressures to violate the understanding of 2003," which gave Taylor refuge under an internationally brokered peace deal, Obasanjo said in a statement Saturday. Nevertheless, he had informed Liberia's president that "the government of Liberia is free to take former President Charles Taylor into its custody."

Liberia's information minister, Johnny McClain, said his government was working Sunday with other countries to get Taylor sent directly to Sierra Leone.

Taylor, who could not be reached for comment, is accused of starting a 14-year civil war in his homeland that brutalized tens of thousands of young boys and girls drafted as rebel fighters. He also is blamed for a savage war in Sierra Leone where rebels -- including child fighters -- terrorized victims by chopping off arms, legs, ears and lips.

Each of the 17 charges he faces carries a sentence of life in prison.

Taylor also is accused of harboring al-Qaeda suicide bombers who attacked U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

After her inauguration in January, Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said a trial for Taylor was not a priority. But she made a formal request to Nigeria after an official visit to Washington, which is the source of aid needed to rebuild Liberia.

Nigerian presidential spokesman Oluremi Oyo denied in a statement published in ThisDay newspaper that Nigeria was reacting to pressure from the United States. Obasanjo is traveling to the United States this week and is scheduled to meet with President Bush on Wednesday.