The International Criminal Court has convicted Jean-Pierre Bemba, a former Vice President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and his legal team, for interfering with witnesses.
Earlier in the year, Bemba was convicted and sentenced to 18 years imprisonment for commanding a militia army – the Congolese Liberation Movement-that committed mass rape, murder and plundering of the neighboring Central African Republic from 2002-2003.
That conviction was the ICC’s first verdict to recognize rape as a weapon of war and to employ the doctrine of command responsibility: That leaders are accountable for the crimes of their subordinates.
Three trial judges found Bemba responsible as military commander for the war crimes of the 1,500-strong MLC as it sought to overturn a coup against the then CAR president, Ange-Félix Patassé.
The judges said Bemba could at any point have ended the MLC’s five-month rampage but chose not to.
The verdicts against them marks the first time the ICC has found suspects guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice.