ICC orders interim release of DR Congo’s Bemba

JUDGES on Tuesday ordered an interim conditional release of former Congolese Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba, who was acquitted last week of war crimes after a decade behind bars.

“Today . . . the International Criminal Court ordered the interim release under specific conditions for Mr Jean-Pierre Bemba,”The Hague-based tribunal said in a statement. “Taking into account all relevant factors and the circumstances of the case as a whole, the Trial Chamber considers that the legal requirements for continued detention are not met.”

The Congolese politician was acquitted on appeal on Friday by the ICC, which said he could not be held liable for crimes committed by his troops in the Central African Republic in 20022003. The surprise decision came after Bemba, 55, had been sentenced unanimously to 18 years in 2016 by ICC trial judges after a decade behind bars following his arrest in Belgium.

Bemba’s interim release relates to a separate case in which he was handed one-year jail sentence and fined € 300,000 ($350,000) in 2017 for bribing witnesses during his war crimes trial. He lost an appeal against that sentence and the ICC is yet to decide on a new jail term, which carries a maximum of five years. Sentencing is on July 4.

Bemba’s lawyer Peter Haynes said his client planned to return to Brussels to be united with his wife and five children. But the ICC’s judges allowed the former rebel commander-turned-politician to leave the court’s detention unit at a Dutch prison in The Hague only if he adhered to strict requirements.

These included “surrendering himself immediately to relevant authorities” if asked by the court, refraining from making statements on the case, not changing his address without prior notice and not contacting any witnesses.

The ICC’s judges added the Congolese politician retroactively served “80 percent of the maximum possible sentence” therefore it was “disproportionate to further detain Mr Bemba merely to ensure his appearance for sentencing.”

The 18-year sentence in Bemba’s main case was the longest ever to be handed down by The Hague-based court. Then, judges found Bemba guilty on five counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by his private army during a five-month rampage in the neighbouring CAR.

Bemba had sent his militia, the Congolese Liberation Movement – a rebel force he later transformed into a political organisation – into the DRC’s northern neighbour in October 2002 to quash a coup against then-President AngeFelix Patasse.

The trial was the first before the ICC to focus on sexual violence as a weapon of war. It was also the first to determine whether a military commander bore responsibility for the conduct of troops under his control.