Special report: Liberia's Taylor arrested, awaiting possible handover

    LAGOS, April 3 (Xinhua) -- Former Liberian leader Charles Taylor will on Monday become the first African ex-president to stand trial for war crimes charges in the UN-backed special court in Sierra Leone.

    The first appearance in the special court of Taylor, who was arrested and transferred to Freetown last week barely 36 hours after escaping from his villa in exile in Nigeria, is scheduled tostart at about 3:00 p.m. (1500 GMT).

    The 58-year-old is expected to plead not guilty to the 11 indictments for atrocities committed during Sierra Leone's 1991-2002 civil war.

    Taylor is accused by the special court of arming Sierra Leone'srebels, notorious for recruiting child soldiers and amputating thelimbs of innocent women and children, in return for "blood diamonds."

    The actual trial, however, is expected to begin at least monthslater, as the court had called for a change of the trial venue to The Hague for the west African region's stability.

    Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf had also said that the court in The Hague would be a "more conducive environment" forTaylor's trial.

    Taylor accepted Nigeria's offer of safe exile in August 2003 when rebels besieged Monrovia, as part of a deal to end his homeland's 14-year-old civil war that claimed about 250,000 lives.Enditem