Ghanaian lawyers to defend Charles Taylor?

Former Liberian leader Charles Taylor is hunting for lawyers to defend him after pleading not guilty to war crimes at a U.N.-backed court in Sierra Leone, his advisors say.

According to a reliable source, two Ghanaian lawyers Nana Ato Dadzie & Azanne Kofi Akainyah, have joined Taylor's team of defence lawyers.

Africa's most feared warlord pleaded innocent on Monday to 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role backing rebels who raped and mutilated civilians and recruited child soldiers during Sierra Leone's 1991-2002 civil war.

From his heavily-guarded cell in the Special Court compound, nestled among the shanty-covered hills of the capital Freetown, Taylor has been receiving legal advisors from around the region but has yet to decide who should defend him, lawyers said.

"We were able to see him and give him our advice. He will consider it and act on it but he has not yet chosen his own defence team," said Azanne Kofi Akainyah, a lawyer from Ghana who came to Freetown at Taylor's request and met him on Monday.

"He was resolute, not downhearted, fully aware of the political machinations behind everything," Akainyah told Reuters late on Monday.

Taylor's aides have said he would like Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz to lead his defence.

It is believed Nana Ato Dadzie flew to Freetown, Sierra Leone, yesterday. He is to join a legal team that includes two Liberian and three Sierra Leone lawyers.

Nana Ato Dadzie was for a very long time, in the PNDC era, a PNDC Secretary (Minister) at the PNDC Secretariat and later became Chief of Staff to President Jerry John Rawlings.

He had previously held the position of PNDC Secretary (Minister) for the Central Region.

He was one of six persons who were prosecuted by the Kufuor administration in the infamous ?Quality Grain Trial?,which sent former NDC Ministers Kwame Peprah and Ibrahim Adam and Dr. George Sipah-Yankey into prison to serve jail terms.

Nana Ato Dadzie is currently defending the Ghana Palaver in the case "Paa Kwesi Nduom Vrs The Ghana Palaver "which is before the National Media Commission.