{"id":140137,"date":"2025-01-13T11:01:39","date_gmt":"2025-01-13T10:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/?p=140137"},"modified":"2025-02-10T15:31:40","modified_gmt":"2025-02-10T14:31:40","slug":"last-words-yekatom-ngaissona-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/140137-last-words-yekatom-ngaissona-trial.html","title":{"rendered":"Last words in the Yekatom and Nga\u00efssona trial"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It is four years that Alfred Rhombot Yekatom and Patrice-Edouard Nga\u00efssona have been on trial before the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Central African Republic in 2013 and 2014. Last week, parties had to tell the judges what sentences they would recommend if the two men are found guilty.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

One of the International Criminal Court<\/a>\u2019s few remaining trials concluded last week with sentencing hearings, even though a judgment has not yet been issued. The trial of Alfred Rhombot Yekatom and Patrice-Edouard Nga\u00efssona for war crimes and crimes against humanity has been going on since 2021. Both men are being held responsible for attacks by the anti-Balaka militia in the Central African Republic in 2013 and 2014. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his opening remarks in the sentencing hearings, deputy ICC prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang described how this trial had required \u201ccreativity\u201d and \u201cperseverance\u201d. Hearings had to continue online during Covid. The three judges outlasted their original mandates, staying on the additional months required into late 2024 and early 2025 to provide a ruling before they leave. And for the first time at the ICC, they were joined by an alternate judge, to prevent any delay (as happened in the Al Hassan case<\/a>). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sentencing hearing was held \u2013 in another first for the ICC \u2013 before the judges have yet pronounced guilt or not. It was therefore marked by some linguistic Olympics with both prosecution and defence forced into wording their submissions in the future perfect tense with convolutedly worded sentences like \u201cthe judges will have decided,\u201d as they argued what might constitute a fair sentence for whichever of the alleged crimes is attributed to each man. The suggested jail time ranged from time served as argued by defence to the maximum possible of 30 years as demanded by the victims' representative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last month the court held contemporaneous hearings for closing arguments in both the\u00a0Abd al Rahman case concerning Darfu<\/a>r and this one, but the CAR hearings got little public attention. That seemed to reflect the struggle observers have also had with covering a trial whose final briefs are hundreds of pages long and in which the word [REDACTED] appears at least 2.000 times in those available to the public.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A power-driven Nga\u00efssona<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Nga\u00efssona faces 31 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity and Yekatom 21 counts, as confirmed by the pre-trial chamber nearly five years ago. The alleged crimes were committed during part of Central African Republic\u2019s ongoing civil war in which Muslim forces known as the Seleka swept into the western part of the country during 2013 and local militia known as the anti-Balaka attacked back. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his closing arguments, prosecutor Kweku Vanderpuye described \u201ca widespread campaign that saw the near total severance of the Muslim community and one involving indiscriminate targeting of Muslim civilians in collective retribution for crimes and atrocities committed by the Seleka\u201d. He outlined how Nga\u00efssona \u201cis charged as an accessory\u201d and how he \u201caided and abetted the commission of the crimes and otherwise contributed to the anti-Balaka's commission of them in furtherance of its criminal activity\u201d. Nga\u00efssona \u201cwanted power whether indirectly,\u201d he said, \u201cor directly through seeking that office [the presidency] himself, a position in the transition government or a lucrative directorship\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several names recured during the hearings, including the anti-Balaka leader and former CAR president Francois Boziz\u00e9, for whom there is an international arrest warrant by the Special Criminal Court<\/a>, a UN-sponsored tribunal in Bangui, and another senior leader Maxime Mokom, who was transferred to The Hague, but against whom all charges were dropped<\/a> in October 2023. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nga\u00efssona \u201cchose to partake in Boziz\u00e9's rhetoric engendering and instrumentalizing ethnic division and hatred,\u201d said Vanderpuye, and \u201che helped to facilitate its [the anti-Balaka\u2019s] operations and its capacity by providing money including for ammunition and weapons by liaising and coordinating with key leaders, com\u2019zones (combatants of a zone) and coordinators such as Maxime Mokom\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Representatives
For the representatives of the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, nothing in the conduct of the two defendants, \u201cor in the participation in that conduct, whatever the motive, is excusable\u201d. Photo: \u00a9 ICC-CPI<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Yekatom, \u201cfuelled by vengeance\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As for Yekatom, the prosecutor argued that he was responsible for \u201cthe crimes committed by his anti-Balaka group in Boeing,\u201d a neighborhood in Bangui, \u201cand along the PK9-Mbaiki axis in the Lobaye prefecture,\u201d and \u201cfor the recruitment of children under the age of 15 into his anti-Balaka group\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yekatom \u201cenlisted and structured thousands of elements \u2013 3,000 according to him. He deployed them in operations, including to areas where the Muslim civilian population had already been made vulnerable after the Seleka had fled the anti-Balaka. He trained them. He armed them,\u201d Vanderpuye said. \u201cYekatom\u2019s elements were fuelled by vengeance and a violent anti-Muslim animus. At a minimum, Yekatom knew, as would anyone applying common sense, that setting such individuals on Muslim civilians would result in exactly the retributive violence against them for which he is responsible. Indeed, it was in executing his orders that his group committed such crimes. And as the evidence shows, he and his commanders even expressly ordered the killing of Muslim men and women, civilians\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a man who shot three of his own elements, killing two of them. This is a man who admitted \u2026 that his group had decapitated a prisoner in their custody because he was a traitor.\u201d These crimes, the prosecutor said, \u201cwere consistent with the anti-Balaka's criminal organisational policy,\u201d and they \u201cformed a part of the group's widespread attack against the Muslim civilian population\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNothing of it is justifiable\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The office of the prosecutor is asking for not less than 22 years in prison for Yekatom and not less than 20 years for Nga\u00efssona. \u201cMr Yekatom was more hands-on in the commission of the crimes within the context of his anti-Balaka group as its senior-most figure and commander. Ultimately, he played an essential role in his group's commission of the charged crimes,\u201d argued Vanderpuye. \u201cMr Yekatom knew exactly what he was doing,\u201d and \u201chis contributions to the commission of the charged crimes at any stage, whether at conception, planning, preparation, attempt or execution, were such that he had control over whether those crimes would be committed or the manner in which they would be committed.\u201d In fact, \u201cthe crimes were executed with near automatic compliance with his orders.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMr Nga\u00efssona, however, was a leader in the broader anti-Balaka movement whose conduct and participation extended well beyond any single group of local elements. His conduct went towards the collective of anti-Balaka groups operating in the western Central African Republic. As such, his physical distance from the commission of the crimes is not a mitigating factor for the purposes of sentencing.\u201d The prosecutor quoted the accused in his own words: \"The anti-Balaka have not got two entities. The anti-Balaka which I coordinate is a sole and single movement which is throughout the entire territory. When I give an order to my children, I think that it is immediately put into action.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSimply put, serious crimes demand serious punishment,\u201d Vanderpuye said. \u201cThese crimes were inflicted on vulnerable persons, insular, defenceless communities and innocent civilians, including children. Nothing of such conduct or participating in it to any extent, regardless of the motive, is excusable. Nothing of it is justifiable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dmytro Suprun, the legal representative for some 292 former child soldiers, asked for Yekatom, who alone faces the accusation of conscripting youth, a sentence of no less than 20 years of imprisonment. While the victims\u2019 legal representatives, in their closing brief <\/a>on behalf of 1673 victims, argued that both Yekatom and Nga\u00efssona should be sentenced to 30 years of imprisonment. They said there are \u201cno mitigating circumstances\u201d and \u201cnothing in the individual circumstances of Mr Yekatom or Mr Nga\u00efssona could justify a reduction of the sentence\u201d. One of their lawyers, Marie-Edith Douzima-Lawson reminded the court that \u201cthe victims in the Central African Republic have not been able to receive justice for the crimes committed in their country, and this has been the case for decades. Such circumstances only perpetuate impunity and encourage such cycles of violence\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A \u201cfundamentally flawed case\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In a more than 200-page closing brief<\/a>, Yekatom\u2019s defence team argued that the prosecutor\u2019s case \u201cwas fundamentally flawed from the outset, rooted in a misunderstanding of the CAR crisis and the response to Seleka atrocities\u201d. They honed in on the allegations of fabrication of evidence<\/a> in this case, and stated that there is no proof \u201cthat Mr Yekatom issued any criminal orders or instructions\u201d. Nor is there that \u201cthe orders issued had any direct effect on the commission of the charged crimes\u201d. They presented Yekatom as a man of peace. \u201cMr. Yekatom has never denied the existence of crimes committed in the context of the CAR crisis or the harm suffered by victims and in particular to the Muslim community in 2013 and 2014. Indeed, it was the very existence of such crimes that drove Mr. Yekatom to work towards the promotion of peace and to secure social cohesion, working alongside religious and local leaders to reach this goal.\u201d In a balancing act between denying the guilt of their client and having to plead for a light sentence in case of a conviction, they ask for \u201ca fair, proportionate and appropriate sentence for each individual crime\u201d and for the judges to acknowledge that there is a large degree of overlap in the underlying conduct for each charge. Having challenged \u201cthe Prosecution\u2019s reliance on the nebulous \u2018anti-Balaka\u2019 term,\u201d they argued that the judges should \u201ccritically evaluate the reality of such organisation noting, inter alia, the alleged size, composition and differing objectives of the \u2018anti-Balaka\u2019 as well as the timeframe in which such coordination would have taken effect\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Geert-Jan
According to Nga\u00efssona's lawyer, Geert-Jan Alexander Knoops, his client \u201cwas never directly involved in the planning or execution\u201d of the alleged crimes. Photo: \u00a9 ICC-CPI<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Scapegoat<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Nga\u00efssona\u2019s defence team suggested Nga\u00efssona was essentially a scapegoat. \u201cIt would be a disgrace to international justice if he were found guilty just because someone has to bear responsibility.\u201d They pleaded that Nga\u00efssona\u2019s \u201cmaximum potential sentence should be time served in detention\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was never directly involved,\u201d said his defence lawyer Geert-Jan Alexander Knoops, \u201cin [the] planning or execution\u201d of the alleged crimes. He pointed out that \u201cthe prosecution has presented no evidence suggesting that Mr Nga\u00efssona directly participated in, oversaw, had contemporaneous awareness or approved of the charged crimes. The allegations regarding instructions, if proven, were wholly unrelated to the commission of crimes against the Muslim civilian population. Moreover, there is no evidence showing the tangible effect these instructions had on the alleged Yekatom group\u2019s and the Bossangoa group\u2019s actions on the 5-December attack and its aftermath. Therefore, Mr Nga\u00efssona\u2019s potential contribution toward an organizational criminal policy or criminal common purpose was neither important nor vital.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knoops reminded the court of the withdrawal of charges against Mokom and the acquittal of Jean-Pierre Bemba<\/a> in a previous CAR trial before the ICC, to suggest that the office of the prosecutor was trying to make sure \u201csomeone has to pay for these crimes,\u201d while he warned, \u201cthe demands of justice can never be sacrificed on the altar of retribution\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether Yekatom and Nga\u00efssona are found guilty or not, there will likely be appeals hearings. Meanwhile, the courtrooms of the ICC have few public hearings scheduled this year apart from the pre-trial hearing of Joseph Kony in absentia announced in the fall and the start of the defence case in yet another CAR trial against alleged Seleka leader Mahamat Said<\/a> in March.<\/p>\n\n\n

\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t
Recommended reading<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t
\"Maxime<\/div><\/a>\r\n\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\tThe Mokom fiasco, part 2: everybody did their job, no one needs to know\r\n\t\t<\/a>\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is four years that Alfred Rhombot Yekatom and Patrice-Edouard Nga\u00efssona have been on trial before the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Central African Republic in 2013 and 2014. Last week, parties had to tell the judges what sentences they would recommend if the two men are found […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":140121,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[562],"tags":[2748,2653,2683],"ji_location":[2165],"class_list":["post-140137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-icc","tag-child-soldiers","tag-crime-against-humanity","tag-war-crime","ji_location-central-african-republic"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLast words in the Yekatom and Nga\u00efssona trial<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In the Yekatom and 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