Charles Taylor: Liberia’s former leader’s ex-wife charged with torture

The ex-wife of Liberia’s former president has been charged with torture, the Metropolitan Police said.

Agnes Reeves Taylor, who was married to Charles Taylor, is to appear in court in London on Saturday.

Ms Reeves Taylor, 51, faces charges related to alleged crimes committed during the first Liberian civil war, between 1989 and 1991.

Some 250,000 people are believed to have been killed in the wars, which ended in 2003.

Ms Reeves Taylor, of east London, has not commented on the charges, three of which relate to alleged torture which is said to have taken place at Gbarnga, Liberia – the headquarters of Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Front during the conflict.

Taylor became president of Liberia following a peace agreement in 1997.

A second civil war broke out in 1999 and Taylor was forced into exile in 2003.

Taylor is currently serving a 50-year sentence in a British prison for supporting rebels who committed atrocities in Sierra Leone.

An act of parliament was passed to allow for Taylor to serve his sentence in the UK, at the cost of the British government, following his conviction in a UN-backed court.