Former Liberian leader Charles Taylor denies eating human flesh

Charles Taylor, while he was giving testimony at his trial for committing war crimes, has denied allegations that he ate human flesh.

During Taylor's trial a witness testified he consumed human flesh with Taylor at a gathering of a secret society, Poro. "It never happened,'' the ex-president retorted, adding: "I never ordered any combatant to eat anyone.'' Taylor claimed to be sickened by the allegations and referred to the testimony by a former aide as the lies of an illiterate man. "I felt like throwing up when I heard that nonsense, and I think even the prosecution were shocked at listening to that foolishness," he told the Special Court for Sierra Leone in The Hague. The former Liberian leader's denial comes at the beginning of the third week of his trial. Taylor is also on trial for murder, rape, hacking off hands and sending drugged child soldiers into battle. Taylor has denied all accounts of his crimes allegedly committed during the 1991-2002 civil war