Sierra Leone says 'justice done' with Charles Taylor sentence It is welcome news to both government and the nation. It is a step forward as justice has been done," said Deputy Information Minister Sheku Tarawali, adding that he hoped victims would find relief even "though the magnitude of the sentence is not commensurate with the atrocities committed." Taylor, 64, was convicted last month of all 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for aiding and abetting Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front during the country's brutal 1991-2001 civil war. In return, he was paid in diamonds mined by slave labour in areas under control of the rebels, who murdered, raped and kept sex slaves, hacked off limbs and forced children aged under 15 to fight, the court found. Victims who watched the sentencing from Freetown felt relief that a key figure of what was one of Africa's most horrific wars, would spend his life behind bars. Judge Richard Lussick spent a significant portion of the sentencing reflecting on the atrocities carried out against Sierra Leoneans which he described as "devastating." He noted that women who suffered sexual abuse and former child soldiers continue to suffer from stigma while many had been rejected by their communities. Many amputees were left unable to perform simple tasks, he added. Sierra Leone has moved on from its traumatic past, a decade after the end of the war, and most are concerned with making ends meet in a country which has yet to reap the full benefit of its enormous mineral wealth.