Bangui, April 25, 2015 \u2013 The Central African Republic is to set up a Special Criminal Court to try serious crimes committed in that country. Members of the transitional parliament on Wednesday approved a law to establish the Court.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Special Criminal Court has a mandate to try the most serious crimes committed on the territory of the CAR, and so contribute to ending impunity in this country,\u201d said Hyacinthe Gbiegba, Vice-President of the transitional parliament\u2019s Interior, Legislation and Administrative Affairs commission.<\/p>\n
The law was adopted with 82 votes in favour, one against and 5 abstentions. The Special Court is to be composed of 27 judges, including 14 Central Africans and 13 internationals. Its President will be Central African, while the prosecution is to be led by a foreigner.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor nearly 20 years, the Central African Republic has been through violent, cyclical crises,\u201d says Gbiegba, explaining the need for the Special Court. \u201cThe most recent is the conflict between the Seleka and Anti-balaka, who loot, rape, kill and burn down whole villages. This is why we hail the courage of the government, supported by the international community, in proposing this law to create the Court.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Special Court will try those suspected of the most serious crimes. \u201cWe are talking about war crimes such as rape, forcing children to become child soldiers, and massive and repeated attacks on non-armed civilian populations,\u201d Gbiegba continued. He said this court would not take cases from the national courts, but rather complement them and move the fight against impunity forward.<\/p>\n
Transitional government authorities have hailed the move. \u201cI am happy the parliamentarians have understood they need to support us in creating this Court to fight against impunity,\u201d says Justice Minister Aristide Sokambi.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOur difficulty in applying the law is that there are no strong institutions. And the recent conflict that has ravaged our country has deprived us of the force to do so. That\u2019s why our partnership with the international community to set up this special criminal court will allow us to exercise this power.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the law adopted by the transitional parliament, the Court will be able to prosecute crimes committed from 2003, when Fran\u00e7ois Boziz\u00e9 staged a coup against Ange-F\u00e9lix Patass\u00e9. The initial draft put the start date for crimes covered at January 1, 2012.<\/p>\n
The next step will be to raise funds from the international community to make the Court a reality.<\/p>\n
In September 2014, International Criminal Court Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda announced she was opening a second investigation into crimes committed in the Central African Republic since 2012. Following a preliminary examination, she said \u201cthe information available provides a reasonable basis to believe that both the Seleka and the Anti-balaka groups have committed crimes against humanity and war crimes\u201d.<\/p>\n
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Bangui, April 25, 2015 \u2013 The Central African Republic is to set up a Special Criminal Court to try serious crimes committed in that country. Members of the transitional parliament on Wednesday approved a law to establish the Court. \u201cThe Special Criminal Court has a mandate to try the most serious crimes committed on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":65206,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[],"ji_location":[2165],"class_list":["post-83","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reconciliation","ji_location-central-african-republic"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n