Former DRC vice-president and four of his legal team tried to influence first trial by Hague court to focus on rape as war crime

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The international criminal court has convicted a former vice-president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and four members of his legal team of interfering with witnesses.

The verdicts against Jean-Pierre Bemba and his legal team marked the first time the court has found suspects guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

The importance of the ruling was underscored by the presiding judge, Marc Perrin de Brichambaut. He said: “It has become apparent in the short time span of the court’s existence that preventing offences against the administration of justice is of the utmost importance.”

Bemba’s attempts to influence his trial ultimately failed. Earlier this year he was convicted and sentenced to 18 years imprisonment for commanding a militia – the Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC) – that committed mass rape, murder and pillage in neighbouring Central African Republic in 2002-2003.

That conviction was the ICC’s first verdict to recognise 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.