A French court Monday handed ex-rebel leader Roger Lumbala a 30-year jail term over complicity in crimes against humanity during the Second Congo War in what activists hailed a "historic" verdict.
Lumbala, a 67-year-old accused of being one of the masterminds of atrocities including rape and torture in the Democratic Republic of Congo from 2002 to 2003, has been on trial in Paris since last month.
The former rebel, who has denied any wrongdoing and refused to attend his trial since it opened, was in the dock to hear the verdict.
The International Criminal Court has convicted former militia leaders from the DRC Thomas Lubanga, Germain Katanga and Bosco Ntaganda, who received the longest jail sentence of 30 years.
But Monday's verdict is the first such conviction by a national court under the principle of universal jurisdiction, rights groups, including TRIAL International and the Clooney Foundation for Justice, said.
"This verdict is historic. For the first time, a national court has dared to confront the atrocities of the Second Congo War and show that justice can break through even after decades of impunity," said Daniele Perissi of TRIAL International.
Necessary conditions for a French trial included that he lived in France and should not be prosecuted on similar charges somewhere else in the world.
Lumbala was arrested in France, where he owned a flat, in December 2020 and has been held in a Paris prison since.
- 'Turning point' -
For more than a month, the court heard about rape used as a weapon of war, sexual slavery, forced labour, torture, mutilation, summary executions, systematic looting, extortion and the plundering of resources, including diamonds.
The alleged atrocities were committed from 2002 to 2003 during Operation "Erase the Slate", which Lumbala's rebel group -- the Rally of Congolese Democrats and Nationalists (RCD-N) -- conducted in the northeast of the country.
During the trial, one man recounted how his brother had his forearm amputated and was then executed after being unable to eat his severed ear.
Women recounted fighters committing rape, often gang rapes committed in front of parents, husbands and children.
Henri Thulliez, one of the lawyers for the civil parties, described the facts laid before the court as just "the tip of the iceberg" of the atrocities.
The victims were mostly Nande or Bambuti Pygmies, ethnic groups accused by the attackers of siding with a rival faction.
Minority Rights Group, a non-governmental organisation that has also been following the trial, welcomed the verdict "as a historic turning point for the indigenous Bambuti, who were targeted in a brutal campaign of extermination led by militias acting on Lumbala's orders".
Lumbala, who briefly served as trade minister then ran for president in 2006, has insisted he was merely a politician with no soldiers or volunteers under his control.
