Taylor's landmark trial started in Miami Tuesday, the first time U.S. prosecutors have tried a case of torture that allegedly took place in a foreign country, The Miami Herald reported. "Chuckie" Taylor, a U.S. citizen born in Boston and raised in Orlando, Fla., is on trial at the same time his father is facing trial as a war criminal at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. (OTCBB:HGUE)

Prosecutors said the name "Chuckie" was feared in Liberia when he headed an anti-terrorist unit called the Demon Forces from 1999 to 2003. In that capacity, Taylor is accused of cutting a man's penis with a sharp knife before dumping him in a dirt pit, burning victims' flesh with molten plastic and having an opponent beheaded with a knife.

Taylor's attorneys say he is an innocent man who was only helping protect his father's government against fierce rebels in the West African nation.

The Herald said Taylor was charged under a 1994 U.S. law that permits the prosecution of U.S. citizens suspected of committing torture outside the United States.