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A candidate for Liberian senator in the upcoming election promises to release former President Charles Taylor from prison if he wins the election.
Menikpakei Dumoe hails from central Bong County, where Taylor lived when he was a rebel leader in the 1990s.
A UN-backed court convicted Taylor of war crimes for his support of rebels who committed atrocities in neighboring Sierra Leone during the 1991-2002 civil war.
He is serving a 50-year prison sentence in a UK prison.
“We want Taylor to be released because our people want him back; We see him as a true nationalist leader who stood up for all the people, ”Dumoe told the BBC.
“Other West African countries participated in our crisis, but their leaders have not been jailed,” he said.
Dumoe has put up billboards with photos of him and Taylor in the town of Gbarnga, which was the headquarters of Taylor’s Liberia National Patriotic Front movement.
But some people in the region see his decision as a mere political ploy to win the sympathy of Taylor supporters.
Liberians from the country’s 15 counties will vote in the December 8 midterm senatorial elections.
