Taylor flown out for trial in the Hague

Charles Taylor

Court officials and government sources said Taylor, 58, was en route to the Netherlands where he will be tried at a UN-backed special tribunal created to handle crimes committed during Sierra Leone's brutal civil war.

Dutch foreign ministry spokesman Gijs Gerlag said Taylor was being carried on a UN flight but would not say when he would land.

"He is en route for The Hague," he said, adding that he could not give any more information "because of security concerns."

Earlier, Taylor was transported by helicopter from the Freetown compound of the Special Court for Sierra Leone to Lungi international airport.

Court officials were at Lungi, 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Freetown, where he boarded an unmarked UN plane, according to an airport source.

Taylor had been detained in Freetown since late March following his capture in Nigeria where he had been living in exile.

"I can confirm he was flown out this morning to The Hague," President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah's spokesman Kanji Daramy told AFP in Dakar by telephone.

"This follows the pronouncement by Britain that it will provide a prison for Mr Taylor should he be found guilty for crimes for which he stands accused," Daramy said.

Taylor has been indicted by the Special Court on charges of crimes against humanity, war crimes and violations of international human rights.

He is seen as the single most powerful figure behind a series of civil wars in Liberia and neighbouring Sierra Leone between 1989 and 2003, which left around 400,000 people dead.

Specifically, he is accused of sponsoring and aiding rebel groups which perpetrated murder, sexual slavery, mutilation and conscription of child soldiers in Sierra Leone's civil war in exchange for a share in the lucrative diamond trade.