\n The International Criminal Court Thursday convicted a former top Central African Republic football official and a militiaman nicknamed Rambo for war crimes committed during the country's civil war in 2013 and 2014.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ex-sports minister Patrice-Edouard Ngaissona was a senior leader of mainly Christian militias as the country slid into civil war, while Alfred Yekatom, a former MP, commanded them on the ground.\n<\/p>\n
\n The ICC sentenced Yekatom to 15 years behind bars for 20 war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder and torture.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ngaissona received 12 years for 28 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.\n<\/p>\n
\n Their militia, known as anti-Balaka or \"anti-machete\", were formed as vigilante self-defence groups after mainly Muslim rebels called the Seleka stormed the capital Bangui and removed then-president Francois Bozize, a Christian.\n<\/p>\n
\n Presiding judge Bertram Schmitt read harrowing details of the violence committed by the militia against suspected Seleka Muslims.\n<\/p>\n
\n Yekatom's men tortured one suspect by cutting off his fingers, toes, and one ear. This man's body was never found. Others were killed and then mutilated.\n<\/p>\n
\n Yekatom listened impassively as the judge read out the verdict, while Ngaissona nodded as his sentence was delivered.\n<\/p>\n
\n The court found Yekatom not guilty of conscripting child soldiers and acquitted Ngaissona of the charge of rape.\n<\/p>\n
\n Both men had pleaded not guilty to all charges.\n<\/p>\n
\n Yekatom was extradited to The Hague in late 2018, after being arrested in CAR for firing his gun in parliament.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ngaissona was arrested in France in December 2018 and extradited to The Hague. At the time he was head of the CAR football association and a board member of the Confederation of African Football.\n<\/p>\n
\n The ICC prosecutor's office said the judgment \"vindicates\" the fundamental rights of the victims and \"stresses\" the importance of the distinction between civilians and combatants in armed conflict.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Today's judgment is a vital recognition of the extensive harm and suffering of the victims and the affected communities of the Central African Republic,\" deputy prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang said in a statement.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"This conviction is a strong message from the ICC that those responsible for atrocity crimes under the Rome Statute will be brought to justice, and held to account.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n The Central African Republic is among the poorest nations in the world and has endured a succession of civil wars and authoritarian governments since independence in 1960.\n<\/p>\n
\n Violence has subsided in recent years but fighting occasionally erupts in remote regions between rebels and the national army, which is backed by Russian mercenaries and Rwandan troops.\n<\/p>\n
\n Set up in 2002, the ICC is the world's only independent tribunal capable of prosecuting those accused of the world's worst crimes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The International Criminal Court Thursday convicted a former top Central African Republic football official and a militiaman nicknamed Rambo for war crimes committed during the country's civil war in 2013 and 2014. Ex-sports minister Patrice-Edouard Ngaissona was a senior leader of mainly Christian militias as the country slid into civil war, while Alfred Yekatom, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-148269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n