US seeks trial in The Hague for Taylor

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Taylor was captured trying to flee Nigeria to Cameroon

The United States is seeking to move the war crimes trial of the former
Liberian president from Sierra Leone to the Netherlands for security
reasons.

Charles Taylor disappeared from his home in exile in southern Nigeria on
Monday night as he was about to be handed over to the UN-backed Special
Court in Sierra Leone.

Taylor faces war crimes charges there for backing Sierra Leone's rebels
during a civil war from 1991-2002.

He was captured on the run on Tuesday night in northeastern Nigeria as
he was trying to cross the border into neighbouring Cameroon.

Earlier on Wednesday, officials said the helicopter landed inside the
compound of the Sierra Leone war-crimes tribunal where he is wanted for
trial.

He was taken in handcuffs to a jail cell at the tribunal building where
Sierra Leone's Assistant Inspector-General of Police read him the formal
indictment, a foreign diplomat said.

The helicopter left Monrovia's Roberts International Airport at around
5.20pm (1720 GMT) on Wednesday, less than an hour after Taylor had
arrived there aboard a Nigerian presidential plane surrounded by scores
of government and UN security officials.

John Bolton, the US ambassador, said Taylor will remain under the
jurisdiction of the Special Court, which is based in Sierra Leone's
capital, Freetown.

"But where he is physically may be somewhere else," he said.

"The court's jurisdiction is not tied to a particular physical
location."

Bolton said where Taylor goes for trial "will be determined in a few
days".

UN resolution

George Bush said on Wednesday that the US wants Taylor tried in The
Hague, where the International Criminal Court, the world's first
permanent war crimes tribunal, the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal, and the
International Court of Justice are based.

Secure facilities at a nearby Dutch prison have housed war crimes
suspects from the former Yugoslavia, and most recently for the
International Criminal Court from the Congo.

"There is a process to get Charles Taylor to the court in the
Netherlands," Bush said.

"Such a process will require a United Nations Security Council
resolution."