Decision today on future of DRC’s Bemba, says court

FORMER Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) vice-president Jean-Pierre Bemba will know today whether he will be freed following his acquittal last week on war crimes charges, the International Criminal Court (ICC) said yesterday.

Despite predictions of an imminent release, presiding judge Bertram Schmitt told a packed public gallery that a decision on Bemba’s detention would come today by the latest.

Bemba was not in court, but his defence lawyers argued that the former rebel leader-turned-politician should be freed without delay, saying after yesterday’s hearing that the message had to be that the case was over.

The stocky politician was acquitted on appeal on Friday by The Haguebased court, which said he could not be held criminally liable for crimes committed by his troops in the Central African Republic in 2002-03.

The surprise decision came after Bemba, 55, had been sentenced unanimously to 18 years in 2016 by ICC trial judges – the longest sentence yet handed down by the court.

He was then found guilty on five counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by his militia during a five-month rampage in the neighbouring CAR.

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

Bemba remains behind bars, awaiting sentence in a separate case in which he was handed one year in jail and fined ß300 000 (R4.6-million) for bribing witnesses during the war crimes trial. – AFP