On April 1, the Criminal Court in Monrovia convicted...

On April 1, the Criminal Court in Monrovia convicted 13 people of treason in a trial that followed 1998 clashes in the capital, involving supporters of former civil war faction leader Roosevelt Johnson. It acquitted one defendant. The 14, who were present in court, were among 32 people charged with treason following a crackdown by President Charles Taylor's security forces in September 1998 on ethnic Krahn loyal to Johnson. The other 18 people, including Johnson, live in exile, and were charged in absentia. The prosecution accused all the defendants of plotting to overthrow Taylor, a charge those present in court denied. Johnson took refuge in the U.S. embassy during the 1998 fighting, triggering a standoff between Washington and Taylor's administration. The United States eventually flew Johnson into exile but Liberia says that this was on the understanding that he should return to face trial. Johnson has not done so. Taylor, who launched the war, won multi-party elections in 1997. His supporters and Krahn fighters fought for two months in Monrovia in 1996 in the last major flare-up of the war. The penalty for anyone convicted of treason is death or life imprisonment. Those found guilty included Bai Gbala, a former adviser to President Taylor, former Senator James Chelly, university lecturer and former Presidential Affairs Minister Charles Breeze and Armah Youlu, former Transport Minister in the transitional government. In their final argument, the defense lawyers said "inconsistencies and variances in the indictment and testimonies of state witnesses indicate that it is rather the Government which conspired against the defendants," inferring that they would appeal to the Supreme Court.