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ICC to hand down verdict against DRCongo ex-leader

– ‘Bemba was in control’ –

Bemba as military commander of the MLC “knew that the troops were committing crimes and did not take all necessary and reasonable measures within his power to prevent or repress their commission,” ICC prosecutors have maintained.

“The attack against the civilian population in the CAR was widespread and systematic.”

Bemba’s defence team however has insisted he had no command over his troops in the CAR.

“There is not a single documentary piece of evidence that shows any orders passing from Bemba and going to his troops in the Central African Republic,” defence lawyer Kate Gibson said in her closing argument in November 2014.

She contended that once the troops had crossed the border they were under the control of leaders in the CAR.

Numerous witnesses during the trial testified to a series of brutal murders and rapes by MLC soldiers, sent in to prop up Patasse against his arch-foe Francois Bozize.

Bozize eventually ousted Patasse, who ruled the Central African Republic for a decade, until he in turn was booted out in 2013, sparking further bloodshed.

Aaron Matta, an expert with the Hague Institute for Global Justice, told AFP that a guilty verdict against Bemba could “help improve the security situation and promote peace in the region through deterrence”.

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After the events in CAR, Bemba, a wealthy businessman-turned-warlord, went on to become one of four vice presidents in DR Congo President Joseph Kabila’s transitional government.

In 2006, he lost in presidential polls against Kabila. He fled the next year into what he called “forced exile” in Europe after his troops were routed by government forces, and was arrested in Brussels in 2008 and handed over to the ICC.

Bemba and four close associates are also on trial in a second case in which they are accused of bribing witnesses in his main trial.

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