FREETOWN, Sierra Leone ? A handcuffed Charles Taylor was flown to Sierra Leone on Wednesday after he was captured carrying sacks of cash, opening the way for the former Liberian president to become the first African head of state tried for war crimes by an international court.

Looking dejected, Taylor was led behind a razor-wired gate to the holding penitentiary at the U.N.-backed Sierra Leone court that has indicted him on 17 counts of crimes against humanity for supporting brutal rebels.

On Tuesday night, police caught Taylor in northern Nigeria, wearing a safari suit and carrying sacks full of dollars and euros in his car, which bore diplomatic plates. He was trying to cross the border to Cameroon.

He was captured nearly 600 miles from the villa in southern Calabar where he lived in exile and from which he reportedly disappeared Monday night.

Taylor’s imprisonment was a watershed moment for the tribunal and for West Africa, a region long shaken by Taylor’s warmongering.

“Today is a momentous occasion, an important day for international justice, the international community and above all the people of Sierra Leone,” said Desmond de Silva, chief prosecutor of the tribunal called the Special Court.

“His presence in the custody of the Special Court sends out the clear message that no matter how rich, powerful or feared people may be, the law is above them.”

De Silva said Taylor had been read his arrest warrant and would make his first court appearance by the end of this week.

Taylor, a bombastic speaker during his time in the bush and as Liberia’s president, made no comment.

Nigeria, which had hosted Taylor in exile since he stepped down in 2003, agreed reluctantly on Saturday to hand Taylor over to the Sierra Leone war crimes tribunal. But he vanished Monday night while traveling in a guarded convoy taking him from Calabar to Port Harcourt, site of the nearest airport.

Nigeria had to admit Tuesday that it had lost track of Taylor, embarrassing President Oluesgun Obasanjo on the eve of a state visit to the United States where he met President Bush.

Bush congratulated Obasanjo on apprehending Taylor when they met on Wednesday at the White House.

“The fact that Charles Taylor will be brought to justice in a court of law will help Liberia and is a signal, Mr. President, of your deep desire for there to be peace in your neighborhood,” Bush said.

After his capture Tuesday night, Taylor was deported to Liberia and then shuttled in a white U.N. helicopter to neighboring Sierra Leone, where he was taken in a van from the airport to the prison wearing a bulletproof vest.

Taylor is charged with 17 counts of crimes against humanity stemming from his support of the Revolutionary United Front rebels that terrorized the civilian population here for years, chopping off the arms, legs, ears and lips of their victims.

The court began trials in 2004, but Taylor is their highest-profile defendant and the first African head of state to face trial on war-crimes charges in front of an international court.

Nine other defendants are on trial, all charged like Taylor with crimes committed during Sierra Leone’s brutal 1989-2002 civil war.