Jury selection is expected to begin this week in a federal courtroom in Miami for the trial of Charles McArthur Emmanuel, 31, charged with inflicting and ordering the torture of prisoners while head of Liberia's so-called Demon Forces, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Monday.

The case is the first prosecution under a 1994 law criminalizing torture outside U.S. borders, testing the concept that alleged human rights abusers should answer for their crimes no matter where they're tried.

Emmanuel, who pleaded not guilty, could receive a life sentence if convicted. Defense attorneys said they plan to argue government witnesses are lying to get legal immigration status in the United States and Europe, the Sun-Sentinel reported.

Emmanuel, a U.S. citizen, was born in Boston and eventually joined his father, Charles Taylor, in Africa, becoming head of Liberia's elite security force, known formally as the Anti-Terrorism Unit, nicknamed "Demon Forces."

Taylor is on trial before a United Nations tribunal in The Hague (OTCBB:HGUE), Netherlands, for alleged human rights violations during Sierra Leone's civil war.