Liberian politician runs on ‘free Charles Taylor’ promise



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A Liberian senatorial candidate in the upcoming polls vows to release former President Charles Taylor from prison if he wins the election.

Menikpakei Dumoe is from central Bong County, where Taylor lived when he was a rebel leader in the 1990s.

A UN-backed tribunal convicted Taylor of war crimes for supporting rebels who committed atrocities in neighboring Sierra Leone during the 1991-2002 civil war.

He is serving a 50-year prison sentence in a British prison.

“We want Taylor released because our people want him back; we see him as a true nationalist leader who stood up for all the people, ”Dumoe told the BBC.

“Other West African countries have participated in our crisis, but their leaders have not been imprisoned,” he said.

Mr Dumoe set up billboards with pictures of himself and Taylor in the town of Gbarnga, which was the headquarters of the Taylor National Patriotic Front movement in Liberia.

But some people in the region see his move as a simple political ploy to gain the sympathy of Taylor supporters.

Liberians in the country’s 15 counties will vote in the midterm senatorial elections on December 8.

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