The ex-wife of former Liberian president Charles Taylor appeared in a London court yesterday charged with torture.
Agnes Reeves Taylor, 51, who now lives in Dagenham, east London, was arrested by the Metropolitan Police’s war crimes unit on Thursday.
The alleged crimes were committed during the civil war in the African country between 1989 and 1991.
They are said to have led to the rape of seven women.
Reeves Taylor, a lecturer in business studies at Coventry University, who has two daughters living in the UK, was charged on Friday with four offences.
Wearing a grey top under a black blazer, she appeared at Westminster magistrates court yesterday.
She denies any involvement, the court heard, and will formally enter a plea at the Old Bailey later this month.
The charges stem from the period when her ex-husband was head of Liberia’s National Patriotic Front.
It is said she “intentionally inflicted severe pain or suffering on an individual in the performance or purported performance of her official duties”.
Taylor, president from 1997 to 2003, is serving 50 years at Frankland prison, County Durham, after being convicted of war crimes at a UN tribunal in 2012.
Reeves Taylor was remanded in custody and will appear at the Old Bailey on June 30.
