Charles Taylor Will Return Alive, Baptist Prelate Prophesizes

With tears streaming down the cheeks of his associates, supporters, family members and loved ones, the famous and motivating not forgotten words, “God’s Willing I Will Be Back”, came out of former president Charles Ghankay Taylor while on his way to exile in Calaba, the Federal Republic of Nigeria. But unfortunately, through a cooked up scheme, Mr. Taylor’s exile landed him in The Hague where he was persecuted and finally sentenced to fifty years in a maximum prison in the United Kingdom of Great Britain.

Since his departure from the soil of his parental land, there have been debates whether he will be released one day to return home or will never return to his mother’s land. If Mr. Taylor ends his sentence uninterrupted, by the time he leaves from detention, he will turn 110 years which majority of the population doubts he will achieve since no Liberian has ever obtained such a blessed age on earth.

The President of the United States of America (USA), Barack Obama in November this year lifted sanctions against the former president of Liberia, Charles Taylor, who is in a maximum-security prison for a raft of war crimes. Besides Mr. Taylor, President Obama also lifted sanction on several of Taylor’s associates and others. In a largely symbolic measure, President Obama scrapped a decade-old executive order that underpinned sanctions against Taylor and his inner circle, who fueled a brutal 1991-2002 war that left tens of thousands dead.

Former president Taylor was arrested in 2006 and charged at The Hague on 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity over acts committed by Sierra Leonean rebels he aided and abetted. He was later slapped with 50 years’ imprisonment for what judges called "some of the most heinous crimes in human history."

But a Baptist Preacher, a strong follower of the Christian Faith with 43 unbroken years on the altar as Minister of the Gospel of the Baptist Church, Rev. Clarence V. B. Moore, Sr., has said that he received a revelation and therefore decided to prophesize that Mr. Taylor will be released from his detention and would return to Liberia, noting that Mr. Taylor will not die in jail, he will be released.

Rev. Moore once served as a Senior Pastor of the Evening Baptist Church in Kakata, Margibi County and Acting Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Gbarnga, Bong County. He can be reached on 0770338346.

About 2:30pm on 24 November 2015, the well dressed and kind looking father walked into the offices of The NEW VISION on 116th Carey Street and said: is this the office of The New Vision Newspaper—can I speak with the editor-in-chief and later introduced himself with his face beaming with smile. ‘” You are wholeheartedly welcomed, feel free, you have arrived at your destination, can we help you? Have your seat, as a matter of tradition of the New Vision of welcoming its guests, a cold battle of water and battle of juice were served, followed by the necessary courtesy.

“Mr. Editor, I appreciate your kindness”, he said. The editor responded: don’t mention, this is part of our tradition of welcoming our guests”. What can we do for you Sr.? He started by commending President Barack Obama and the people of the United States of America (USA) for lifting full sanction on former president Taylor and his associates.

Speaking further, the Baptist prelate said: I have seen a vision-former president will not die in jail; he will be released and will return to his mother’s land, Liberia, his return to Liberia will be no problem to the security and stability of Liberia, he poses no threat”.

In his startling revelations, Rev. Moore’s prophesized that Mr. Taylor will be set free but did not attach time to Mr. Taylor’s release from detention, saying that it is just a matter of time for the prophecy to be fulfilled. He described Mr. Taylor as a Liberian who allegedly loves his enemies and treats them with respect.

However, when Rev. Moore was quiet about the dozen of human rights violations and wanton killings under Mr. Taylor’s commands, the Baptist Preacher said: Mr. Taylor did not kill anyone; he has not committed any crimes in Liberia. But said Taylor is a human being and as human, sometime people make mistakes.

He argued that if former president Taylor had been a wicked man he would not have kept President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf’s children in his government, and alleged that President Johnson-Sirleaf has not reciprocated in similar manner to employ Mr. Taylor’s children in the Unity Party (UP)-led government. Rev. Moore has also revealed that he has communicated with President Obama to go beyond the lifting of the sanction on Mr. Taylor and associates but to use his presidential influence to contact his counterparts to have Mr. Taylor released. He said just as the former factions leaders are residing in Liberia, Mr. Taylor deserves similar treatments to reside home.

Taylor was arrested in 2006 and charged by The Hague on 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity over acts committed by Sierra Leonean rebels he aided and abetted. He was later sentenced to 50 years' imprisonment for what judges called "some of the most heinous crimes in human history." He is currently being held in a maximum-security British prison. In a letter to Congressional leaders Obama said Taylor's sentencing and the "diminished ability" of his allies to "undermine Liberia's progress" meant the sanctions were no longer needed.

Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president who was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity in April for acts committed during a civil war in the 1990s in the West African country of Sierra Leone, was sentenced today to 50 years’ imprisonment. Taylor, in his late 60s, was found guilty in 2013 of all 11 counts against him, including rape, torture, murder, terrorism, sexual slavery and the used of child soldiers under age 15.

The prosecution had recommended that Taylor be given an 80-year sentence to ensure that he dies in prison, saying the “gravity of the crimes is the litmus test” and noting his “willingness and enthusiastic participation” in the crimes. If his 50-year sentence, imposed by Judge Richard Lussick of Samoa, is carried out, he is assuredly guaranteed to die in prison as well.

Taylor led a cohort of his own Liberian rebels and operated in concert with other militia, who gained notoriety for hacking off innocent people’s arms and legs as the rebels ran a terror campaign from village to village in Sierra Leone.

At certain times, the rebels beheaded civilians and mounted them at checkpoints. They also forced women and girls to undress in public and raped them in public and in front of their families. The soldiers carved words on civilians’ bodies, and engraved “RUF,” for Revolutionary United Front, on their heads and backs. The child soldiers were also forced to cut off people’s limbs as well as guard diamond mines and fight.

Taylor expressed “sadness and deepest sympathy for the atrocities and crimes that were suffered by individuals and families in Sierra Leone” during the May 16 closing hearing at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, which tried Taylor in an international criminal court near The Hague for security reasons. He added that he was not responsible for the crimes committed by rebel forces and that his prosecution was motivated by politics. He asked that “reconciliation and healing and not retribution should be the guiding principles” in determining his sentencing.

Taylor was first issued an arrest warrant in 2003, to which he responded by stepping down as president of Liberia and fleeing to Nigeria to avoid prosecution. He argued that his arrest be dropped since he had been a head of state when he was indicted and therefore immune to the court’s jurisdiction.

The court denied this request, and in 2006, Nigeria arrested and sent him to the Sierra Leonean court, a United Nations-backed tribunal, in Freetown, the capital. He was moved to the criminal court in The Hague in 2006, pleading not guilty to all counts.