The Hague, May 12, 2015 (FH) \u2013 Mathieu Ngudjolo, the first person to be acquitted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), was on Monday forcibly sent back to the Democratic Republic of Congo. The ICC and Dutch authorities dismissed fears that his security would be in danger if he went back.<\/p>\n
Ngudjolo tried everything to avoid being sent back. But on May 11, handcuffed and escorted by six policemen, he was put on a flight to Kinshasa via Brussels. Belgium rejected his last political asylum request, as did the Netherlands and Kenya. \u201cMathieu Ngudjolo is viewed as a war criminal,\u201d\u00a0says his Swiss lawyer Saskia Ditisheim. \u201cHe has been treated from start to finish like a convict.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ngudjolo is a former militiaman who joined the Congolese army as a colonel after the 2006 peace agreement. He was arrested and transferred to the ICC in February 2008. The Court charged him with crimes against humanity and war crimes in connection with the February 2003 massacre in Bogoro, a village in the eastern DRC, where Rwanda and Uganda have fought for mineral wealth through local militias. During his trial, Ngudjolo claimed that the Congolese government of President Joseph Kabila planned the attack in order to take back territory that was then in Ugandan hands. \u201cI am a soldier and that\u2019s my fear,\u201d he told JusticeInfo in the Amsterdam airport detention centre a few days before his expulsion. \u201cThe Congolese authorities know I have filed asylum requests. When I get to Congo, I will be arrested for desertion, and not only that! During my trial I filed documents that are classed defence secrets.\u201d \u00a0This could even carry a death penalty, according to Aprodhec, an association of Congolese diaspora in Belgium. In a May 7 statement, Aprodhec said that if Ngudjolo disappeared, it would \u201ctake legal action against any individual or entity suspected of complicity in murder\u201d.<\/p>\n
But Ngudjolo\u2019s fears for his security did not move either the Dutch authorities or the ICC. Having acquitted him, the ICC says it is no longer responsible for him, although it cooperated with the Dutch authorities in getting him deported. ICC rules say the transfer of an acquitted person out of the Netherlands should take account of that person\u2019s views, but the ICC preferred to base its action on guarantees from Kinshasa contained in a confidential report. These guarantees are offered by the same government from whom Ngudjolo says he fears reprisals.<\/p>\n
ICC spokesperson Fadi El Abdallah said Ngudjolo would be safe in the DRC and that he did not run any risks as a result of his ICC trial. The Dutch authorities based their refusal of Ngudjolo\u2019s asylum request on the same report. They do not want the ICC to become an open door to the Netherlands. In addition, like the ICC, the Netherlands does not want to tarnish its relations with Kinshasa.<\/p>\n
Ngudjolo\u2019s lawyers say they do not understand. \u201cIn a couple of months he\u2019ll disappear and be killed, and the ICC\u2019s witness protection department will have no power,\u201d lawyer Flip Sch\u00fcller says bitterly. \u201cThe Congolese authorities will order an investigation whose results we\u2019ll probably never get.\u201d<\/p>\n
Human Rights Watch called on the ICC and the Dutch authorities to \u201cclosely monitor Ngudjolo\u2019s situation for as long as necessary\u201d to make sure he is safe.<\/p>\n
Lawyer Jean-Pierre Kilenda wrote in April to Sidiki Kaba, President of the ICC Assembly of States Parties, calling for \u201ca sensible solution\u201d to avoid Ngudjolo being \u201csacrificed on the altar of considerations outside the law\u201d. But twenty years after its rebirth in the 1990s, international justice has still not found a solution to the problem of acquitted persons. At the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, eight acquitted people and three who have served their sentences live in a safe house paid for by the UN, and are still waiting for host countries, despite negotiations with several countries where their families are living. Unlike the Dutch authorities, Tanzania has not sent them back to Rwanda and tolerates their presence on its territory.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Hague, May 12, 2015 (FH) \u2013 Mathieu Ngudjolo, the first person to be acquitted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), was on Monday forcibly sent back to the Democratic Republic of Congo. The ICC and Dutch authorities dismissed fears that his security would be in danger if he went back. Ngudjolo tried everything to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":64033,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[562],"tags":[],"ji_location":[2373],"class_list":["post-152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-icc","ji_location-netherlands"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n