Former President of Liberia, he is recognised for aiding an 11-year war in Sierra Leone that ended in 2002. Taylor helped Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front rebels murder, rape and mutilate across Sierra Leone as he profited from a trade in blood diamonds.

Taylor, 64, was the first head of state convicted by an international court since the trials of Nazis after World War Two and the sentence has set a precedent for an emerging system of international justice.

He was gaoled for 50 years on May 30, 2012 for helping Sierra Leonean rebels commit what The Hague has called some of the worst war crimes in history.