The Special Court for Sierra Leone in The Hague has confirmed a 50-year jail term handed down to former Liberian president Charles Taylor, judicial sources say.

The 65-year-old ex-president appealed his sentence after it was passed in 2012. But appeals judges have again found him guilty on 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

"The appeals chamber... affirms the sentence of 50 years in prison and orders that the sentence be imposed immediately,” Judge George King told the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) in The Hague.

Taylor has been accused of supplying the Revolutionary United Front rebels with guns and ammunition during Sierra Leone's 11-year civil war, in exchange for diamonds mined by slave labor.

Taylor’s defense lawyers have denied the charges, accusing the UN-backed court of making its decision on hearsay evidence.

Judicial sources say proper procedures have been followed by the court while delivering the verdict.

"The Appeals Chamber is of the opinion that the sentence imposed by the trial chamber is fair in the light of the totality of the crimes committed by Taylor”, King said, adding, "The defense failed to demonstrate any discernable errors in the trial chamber's sentencing."

The deadly war claimed the lives of 1200,000 people and displaced more than two million others.