The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Bemba’s four accomplices — lawyer Aime Kilolo, his legal case manager Jean-Jacques Mangenda, Narcisse Arido, a defence witness, and Congolese lawmaker Fidele Babala — were sentenced to between six months and two-and-half years in jail. All have also appealed the March 2017 corruption judgement.
Bemba, 55, was found guilty by judges of masterminding a network to bribe and manipulate at least 14 defence witnesses, persuading them to lie for him as he fought five charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The judges ruled he had “planned, authorised, and approved the illicit coaching” of witnesses in his main trial.
Also appealing Bemba’s sentence is the prosecution which had asked for an eight-year jail term against him in the case — the first for bribery and corruption to be successfully prosecuted at the ICC.
Bemba, once a wealthy businessman, is also separately appealing his war crimes conviction and 18-year jail term, but no date for the appeals judgement has been set yet.
– Ahmad Al-Faqi Al-Mahdi –
Malian jihadist Mahdi, in his 40s, was sentenced in September 2016 to nine years for destroying the fabled shrines at Timbuktu. He was the first defendant to plead guilty at the ICC after he was captured in Niger in 2015, and turned over to the court.
The ICC judges found in August that he was liable for 2.7 million euros in personal damages for the destruction of the site, committed as jihadists swept across northern Mali in 2012.
But the victims’ lawyers say the wording of the reparations order risks denying some people compensation, and are asking for a slight amendment.
Reparations are the final stages of cases before the ICC, and so far only three such compensation awards have been made.
