UN prosecutors demand stiffer war crimes sentence for Charles Taylor Because Taylor's conviction is the first of a head of state since the Nazi trials at Nuremburg 67 years ago, Mr Koumjian argued the verdict is "of great consequence" and the sentence should be increased "in order to reflect the totality of his overall conduct and culpability." Taylor was in court on Tuesday morning but did not immediately make any comments. UN judges last year found Taylor guilty of 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, rape, torture and the use of child soldiers but acquitted him of planning atrocities. Prosecutors argue that the trial judges made a mistake by only convicting Taylor of aiding and abetting Sierra Leoneﾒs notorious Revolutionary United Front and other rebel groups. Taylor was convicted of aiding and abetting terrorism, murder and rape, committed by the RUF, who waged a terror campaign during a civil war that claimed 120,000 lives between 1991 and 2001. His sentence was the first handed down against a former head of state in an international court since the Nazi trials at Nuremberg in 1946. Taylor's lawyers say that many of the prosecution witnesses who testified during his trial provided "uncorroborated hearsay evidence." The UN court ruled that Taylor helped rebels in Sierre Leone with the preparation and execution of crimes by helping to "design" their strategy. War crimes "resulted directly from (these) plans" but he did not command the execution or instigate them, said Richard Lussick, a UN judge last April. Taylor's practical assistance, including trade in blood diamonds and moral support had substantial impact on the commission of war crimes and "he knew it well," the UN court judged. Taylor had pleaded not guilty to all counts, claiming in seven months of testimony in his own defence that he was a statesman and peacemaker in West Africa. While judges convicted him of aiding and abetting atrocities by rebels, they cleared him of direct command responsibility, saying he had no direct control over the rebels he supported. During Taylor's trial which began proper on June 4, 2007, some 94 witnesses took the stand for the prosecution and 21 for the defence. Taylor himself testified for 81 hours. Judges heard gruesome testimony from victims of the Sierra Leone conflict, including a witness who said he pleaded with RUF rebels to cut off his remaining hand so they would spare his toddler son. Others said Taylor's fighters strung human intestines across roads, removed foetuses from women's wombs and practised cannibalism, while children younger than 15 were enlisted to fight. One witness said he was present when the Liberian leader ate human liver. During his own testimony, which began in July 2009, Taylor called the trial a "sham" and denied allegations he ever ate human flesh. Nigerian authorities arrested Taylor in March 2006 when he tried to flee from exile in Nigeria after stepping down as Liberian president three years earlier in a negotiated end to a civil war in his own country. Appeals judges are expected to have a decision by September, with the Liberian ex-president remaining behind bars at the UN's detention unit in The Hague until appeals proceedings are finalised.