ICC convicts former CAR rebel commander of crimes against humanity

The International Criminal Court on Wednesday convicted a former Central African Republic rebel commander on four counts of crimes against humanity committed while he was in charge of a detention center in 2013.

The court found that Mahamat Said Abdel Kani, 56, oversaw beatings and maltreatment as the country was gripped by sectarian violence.

Said also faced three counts of war crimes but was acquitted of them. During his trial, he pleaded not guilty to all charges for the crimes, which were carried out between April and August 2013.

A sentence, which could be life imprisonment, is to be handed down at a later date.

Said was a top commander of the mainly Muslim Seleka rebel group that ousted President Francois Bozize in 2013 amid a civil war.

He was put in charge of the Central Office for the Repression of Banditry (OCRB), a prison unit in the capital, Bangui.

Prosecutors allege that prisoners at the facility, who were suspected supporters of Bozize, were subjected to various forms of torture, including whippings and body mutilation.

According to the court, inmates were also denied food or water, with some drinking their own urine out of desperation.

One cell, dubbed "the hole," where prisoners were held in dire conditions, was said by the court to be directly under Said's office.

Said stood accused of overseeing this maltreatment and personally participating in the beating of at least one prisoner, the court found.

Said was extradited to the ICC by Central African authorities in 2021, with his trial beginning in September 2022.

It is the first time that a member of the Seleka group has stood trial at the ICC.

The ICC, established in The Hague in 2022, is the world's only independent tribunal capable of prosecuting those accused of the world's worst crimes.