23.05.14 – WEEKLY SUMMARY – CONGOLESE MILITIAMAN GETS 12 YEARS, GADDAFI’S SON MUST BE TRIED IN THE HAGUE

Arusha, May 23, 2014 (FH) – The International Criminal Court has sentenced former Congolese militia leader Germain Katanga to 12 years in jail. Meanwhile, the ICC Appeals Chamber confirmed that Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi should be tried in The Hague and not in Libya. 

1 min 19Approximate reading time

LUBANGA APPEALS HEARINGS END Former Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga, the first person to be tried by the ICC, said at the end of his appeals hearings on Tuesday that he finds his conviction “incomprehensible”. On March 14, 2012 Lubanga was found guilty of conscripting child soldiers into his forces and using them to fight in Ituri, northeast Democratic Republic of Congo, between September 1, 2002 and August 13, 2003. On July 10, 2012, the lower court sentenced him to 14 years in jail.

COURT SAYS GADDAFI MUST BE TRANSFERRED TO THE HAGUEThe Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Wednesday confirmed that Saif Al-Islam, son of the late Muammar Gaddafi, must be tried in The Hague and not in Libya. He  is wanted by the ICC for crimes against humanity committed during bloody repression of the 2011 uprising in his country. But Tripoli had argued its right to try him in its own courts, saying Libyan judicial authorities were also investigating the case. A lower court of the ICC had deemed in May 2013 that Libya could not guarantee a fair trial for the accused. This decision has thus now been confirmed.

FORMER CONGOLESE MILITIAMAN GETS 12-YEAR SENTENCE The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Friday sentenced former Congolese militia leader Germain Katanga to 12 years in jail for crimes committed in 2003 in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). On March 7, 2014, the court found Katanga guilty of complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity committed on February 24, 2003, in Bogoro, in the eastern Congolese district of Ituri. According to the judges, this former commander of the Patriotic Resistance Forces in Ituri (Forces de résistance patriotiques en Ituri, FRPI) played a part in the attack on Bogoro, even if his direct participation had not been proven. In determining the sentence, the judges took into account the ethnic nature of the attack and its ferocity, but also several mitigating factors.

ER/ JC