Freetown, 06 July-(ANA)-A Sierra Leone ex-rebel has told a war crimes trial that he did not give "blood diamonds" to former Liberian President Charles Taylor.
Issa Sesay, who is serving a 52-year jail term, said Mr Taylor had not been in charge of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel group during the war.
Mr Taylor is accused of using diamonds to fuel a conflict in Sierra Leone that cost tens of thousands of lives.
He has pleaded not guilty to 11 charges.
The UN-backed war crimes tribunal in The Hague has spent more than two years hearing the case, with seven months spent with Mr Taylor himself on the stand.
Sesay, 40, was sentenced in October 2009 by the same special court, which was set up to try suspects from the civil war.(ANA)
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