The Hague — Thousands of Liberians, Wednesday, heaved a sigh of relief as former President and warlord, Mr. Charles Taylor, got 50 years jail term for committing crimes against humanity in the civil war in the West African nation which spilled over to Sierra Leone.

Taylor’s conviction was also hailed by human rights groups, including Amnesty International, as a sign that heads of state cannot escape prosecution for crimes against humanity. However, many rights groups have called for his prosecution for alleged crimes in Liberia.

Addressing the court earlier this month, Taylor said he had acted with honour in Sierra Leone and claimed he had helped end the civil war. “What I did was done with honor,” he said. “I was convinced that unless there was peace in Sierra Leone, Liberia would not be able to move forward.” He did not address the court.

Taylor stepped down as Liberian leader in 2003 as rebels opposing him pounded the capital, Monrovia. He was granted amnesty in Nigeria, but was arrested trying to flee the country in 2006 after Liberian authorities requested his transfer to the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

He was sent to be tried at The Hague, with fears that a trial in the Sierra Leone capital, Freetown, could spark instability.

Thousands of amputees, women, who were raped and children whose parents were brutally killed in the civil war were jubilant that Taylor, 64, will spend the rest of his life in jail house, making him the first former heads of state to be convicted by the International Court for war crimes.

Charles Taylor was convicted for levying war on his country and for helping the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) to institute a similar action in Sierra Leone from 1991 to 2002.

Taylor played a key role in other bloody West African conflicts, not least the 1989-95 Liberian civil war, but was only indicted in relation to his role in Sierra Leone. The former Liberian leader was convicted last month on 11-count charge including terrorism, murder, raping women and girls, recruiting child soldiers, enslavement and pillaging the country.

The war in Liberia spilled into Sierra Leone as Taylor tried to frustrate the peace-keeping mission put together by the West African States under the acronym ECOMOG  but more importantly the former Liberian leader needed an evil alliance with late Fodey Sankoh, to enable him get access to diamonds  from Sierra Leone. This triggered off the so-called blood diamonds as the proceeds from stealing diamond were used to purchase arms.

The special court for Sierra Leone in The Hague which handed the sentence said Taylor has the right to appeal. The prosecutors had sought an 80-year jail term but Justice Richard Lussick said Taylor had never set foot in Sierra Leone but had left a heavy footprint there. He said the effect of Taylor’s crimes on families of the victims was “devastating.”

“The accused has been found responsible for aiding and abetting, as well as planning, some of the most heinous and brutal crimes recorded in human history,” the judge said. He said the court found when weighing its sentence that Taylor’s abuse of his positions as president and member of the West African regional leadership body, ECOWAS, was “an aggravating factor of great weight.”

Another aggravating factor was his abuse of Sierra Leone for financial gain. Lussick said that while convictions for aiding and abetting in crimes generally warranted lower prison terms, this was not the case for Taylor, whose leadership role “puts him in a class of his own.”

Prosecutors had sought an 80-year sentence to reflect the central role that Taylor played in the Sierra Leone conflict, while his lawyers rejected claims he played a central part and requested a proportionate sentence. Courtenay Griffiths, one of the defense attorneys, said the sentence in effect meant Taylor would die in prison. His legal team plans to appeal the sentence as excessive.