WASHINGTON
A federal jury in Miami convicted the son of onetime Liberian leader Charles Taylor yesterday in the first test of an American law that gives prosecutors the power to bring charges for acts of torture committed in foreign lands.

Roy Belfast Jr., also known as Charles "Chuckie" Taylor, 31, will be sentenced early next year on the charges, which include conspiracy, torture and firearms violations.
He faces the possibility of life in prison.

Authorities say that Taylor led a violent security force in Liberia while his father served as the president of the African nation.

The elite Antiterrorist Unit initially protected the country's leaders and other dignitaries.
But the squad later turned its energy toward training fighters and cracking down on political opponents, according to court papers.

Prosecutors accused Taylor of taking part in atrocities and directing subordinates to torture victims using hot irons, guns, knives and electrical devices from 1999 to 2002.

Human-rights groups hailed the prosecution as a rare but critical use of a 14-year-old law that allows U.S. authorities to charge citizens with atrocities committed abroad.

The law also applies to offenders who are in the United States, no matter their national origin.
Taylor, who was born in Boston, had been in custody since late 2006, when he pleaded guilty in a separate case of passport fraud.

Taylor's father faces trial on Liberian war crimes before a U.N. tribunal in The Hague.

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