An appeal by former Congolese militia leader Bosco Ntaganda was dismissed by the International Criminal Court on Tuesday, upholding a conviction for war crimes and a 30-year sentence handed down in 2019.
Published by RFI on March 30, 2021.
Former Congolese warlord Bosco Ntaganda at the International Criminal Court in 2019. (POOL/AFP)
ICC Judge Howard Morrison read the verdict at The Hague-based court, saying the appeals chamber confirmed the decision to convict and the judgement on sentencing.
Rwandan-born Ntaganda was found guilty of 18 charges of war crimes carried out in the early 2000s and was dubbed by some as “The Terminator”, in reference to his relentless killing.
His war crimes included murder, sexual slavery, rape and using child soldiers. The sentence was one of the longest in the world court’s history.
Earlier in March, the ICC set reparations to Ntaganda’s victims at US$30 million for some 100,000 victims.
Ntaganda was judged by the ICC to have been one of the key leaders of the Union of Congolese Patriots rebel group and its military wing, Patriotic Forces for the Liberation of Congo.
Hundreds of civilians were killed by Ntaganda’s rebel group in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo between 2002 and 2003, as rival militias clashed over the region’s mineral wealth.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the area since 1999.
The former army general later founded the M23 rebel group that also operated in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Ntaganda insisted he was a soldier not a criminal during the trial and said the “The Terminator” nickname did not apply to him.
© 2021 Copyright RFI - All rights reserved