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Swiss Authorities Block Taylor's Accounts 
By Associated Press 

July 23, 2003, 2:00 PM EDT 

BERN, Switzerland -- Swiss authorities have frozen $1.47 million in bank
accounts linked to embattled Liberian President Charles Taylor, who has
been indicted for war crimes, the Justice Ministry said Wednesday. 

Taylor, under siege by rebels demanding that he step down, is sought for
trial by an international court in Sierra Leone on charges he supported
a terror campaign by rebels in that country in which tens of thousands
of people were killed, raped, kidnapped or maimed. 

The Swiss ministry said the bank accounts, held in Zurich and Geneva,
belonged to two individuals associated with Taylor. Switzerland did not
identify the account holders. 

"No accounts held directly by President Taylor have been found," the
ministry said. 

The ministry last month ordered Swiss banks report any assets believed
to be connected to Taylor and then block them to comply with a request
by the court in Sierra Leone. 

Taylor is suspected of invested the proceeds from the diamond sales in a
number of countries, including Switzerland, the justice ministry said
when it ordered the asset hunt. 

He also is alleged to be reaping much of the profits from timber sales
in Liberia, which has West Africa's last rain forests. 

Liberia accounts for more financial transactions with Switzerland than
any other African nation. 

Liberian assets in Switzerland were worth $3.3 billion, half of them
Liberian-owned property, according to figures for 2002 released by the
Swiss National Bank. 

Desmond de Silva, the deputy prosecutor, welcomed the freezing of
Taylor-linked assets. 

"We have got to penetrate the walls of concealment that this indicted
war criminal has thrown around his looted wealth," he said. 

The Swiss order also applies to Taylor's relatives, "members of his
regime and various business people and companies," the ministry said
last month. 

Copyright © 2003, The Associated Press 

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