MIAMI:
Torture
charges
against the
son of
former
Liberian
president
Charles
Taylor
should be
dismissed
because U.S.
prosecutors
refuse to
disclose the
identity of
the alleged
victim, a
defense
lawyer said
Monday.
Emmanuel,
29, also
known as
Chuckie
Taylor, is a
Boston-born
U.S. citizen
accused of
torturing a
man in
Liberia in
2002 while
head of a
paramilitary
Anti-Terrorist
Unit in his
father's
government.
Emmanuel is
the first
person ever
charged
under a U.S.
law making
it a crime
for a
citizen to
commit
torture
overseas.
"The very
core of this
crime is
that it
happened to
a human
being, and
we need to
know who
that person
is," said
Miguel
Caridad,
attorney for
Charles
McArthur
Emmanuel.
"We can't
prepare for
trial
without the
name of this
victim."
Human rights
groups and
Liberian
witnesses
say the ATU
was
responsible
during
Taylor's
presidency
for
widespread
violence and
numerous
crimes,
including
murder,
kidnapping,
looting and
recruitment
of child
soldiers.
The U.S.
indictment,
however,
focuses on
one case in
which
Emmanuel and
other ATU
members
allegedly
abducted a
man, burned
him with a
hot iron,
forced him
at gunpoint
to hold
scalding
water,
applied
electric
shocks to
his genitals
and rubbed
salt in his
wounds.
Prosecutor
Karen
Rochlin said
the
indictment
against
Emmanuel
adequately
lays out the
charges
against him
— including
precise
dates,
times,
locations
and actions
— and that
the name of
the victim
must be
withheld for
his own
protection.
"There is no
(previous)
case that
says it is
necessary to
name the
victim when
charging a
crime of
violence,"
Rochlin
said. "This
case
presents
very real
concerns to
the United
States about
the safety
and welfare
of this
particular
witness."
U.S.
Magistrate
Judge
William C.
Turnoff did
not
immediately
rule on
whether to
dismiss the
case.
Emmanuel is
being held
without bail
on the
torture
charges,
which carry
a potential
life
sentence. He
is also
serving an
11-month
sentence for
falsifying
his father's
name on a
passport
application
before
arriving in
March at
Miami
International
Airport from
Trinidad.
Taylor,
meanwhile,
faces trial
later this
year before
a special
United
Nations
tribunal in
The Hague,
Netherlands,
on charges
of war
crimes and
crimes
against
humanity for
allegedly
overseeing
the murder,
rape and
mutilation
of thousands
of people
during a
decade-long
civil war in
Sierra
Leone.
Emmanuel was
born to an
ex-girlfriend
of Taylor's
during his
time as a
college
student in
Boston.