He led the group against the Doe regime and thus initiated the First Liberian Civil War (1989–96). After Doe’s execution and a peace deal that ended the war, Taylor compelled the population into electing him president in the 1997 general election. In his term of office, he was accused of various crimes resulting from his involvement in the Sierra Leone Civil War (1991–2002). The resentment of the enraged opposition culminated in the outbreak of the Second Liberian Civil War (1999–2003), after which Charles Taylor lost control of much of the countryside and resigned from the post. Although he went into exile in Nigeria, the newly elected President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf formally requested his extradition in 2006. Awaiting trial for several years, Charles Taylor was found guilty of all eleven charges levied by the Special Court, including terror, murder and rape, in April 2012.