Liberia's Charles Taylor begins appeal at The Hague

Liberia's jailed ex-President Charles Taylor has started his appeal at a UN-backed special court in The Hague.

Last May, the court sentenced him to 50 years in prison for aiding and abetting rebels in neighbouring Sierra Leone during the 1991-2002 civil war.

Defence lawyers have called the verdict a "miscarriage of justice" and ask for the conviction to be squashed.

Last week Taylor, 64, reportedly wrote to MPs demanding a presidential pension of $25,000 (£15,600) in Liberia.

Describing the withholding of his state presidential pension as a "mammoth injustice", Taylor is quoted in the letter as saying that he is entitled to consular access and diplomatic services at The Hague, but he has been "denied that right".

Taylor became the first former head of state to be convicted of war crimes by an international court since the Nuremberg trials of Nazis after World War II.

Throughout his trial, the former Liberian leader, who was arrested in 2006, maintained his innocence.

Taylor started Liberia's civil war as a warlord in 1989, and was elected president in 1997. He governed for six years before being forced into exile in southern Nigeria. He was arrested in 2006 while trying to flee Nigeria.

The trial was moved to the Netherlands due to concerns that the case might spark fresh instability in Sierra Leone and Liberia.