Sierra Leone's special war tribunal, which is backed by the United Nations, has found three former junta leaders guilty on 11 counts of war crimes during civil war. The verdicts on Wednesday were the first delivered by the Sierra Leone court in prosecutions arising from a 1991-2002 civil war.The tribunal was set up following the end of fighting in 2002 to prosecute the worst offenders in the conflict, which spilled into neighbouring Liberia. The court has indicted 12 people, including Charles Taylor, Liberia's former president, who is charged with backing Sierra Leonean armed groups. The three defendants convicted on Wednesday in Freetown - Alex Tamba Brima, Brima Bazzy Kamara and Santigie Borbor Kanu - were indicted in 2003 as the alleged leaders of the military group, called the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, which toppled Sierra Leone's government in a 1997 coup and then teamed up with armed groups to control the country, according to the indictment.
Peter Andersen, spokesman for the Special Court for Sierra Leone, said: "They were found guilty but not on all counts." He said no judgement was entered on two counts of sexual violence while the three were found not guilty on one count of physical violence. But the court found them guilty on 11 other counts that covered terrorising the civilian population, unlawful killings, rape, the use of child soldiers, abductions and forced labour, and looting. The men, all of whom pleaded not guilty, were due to be sentenced on July 16.