ICC: Bemba, Al Mahdi and Katanga Appeals Judgments

Today, March 8, 2018, the International Criminal Court rendered its Appeals Judgments in three cases: Bemba, Al Mahdi and Katanga.

The Prosecutor v. Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, Aimé Kilolo Musamba, Jean-Jacques Mangenda Kabongo, Fidèle Babala Wandu and Narcisse Arido

Jean-Pierre Bemba ©Michael Kooren/AFP/Getty Images

Jean-Pierre Bemba ©Michael Kooren/AFP/Getty Images

In the Bemba case, the Appeals Chamber issued in judgments on the  appeals against verdict and sentence. All five accused had appealed against their conviction, and all five appeals were rejected by the Appeals Chamber. Convictions were confirmed, but the charge of presenting evidence that a party knows is false or forged of which Mr Bemba, Mr Kilolo and Mr Mangenda were acquitted on the basis that this provision only applies to the presentation of documentary evidence, not to the calling of witnesses.

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ICTY: Appeals Chamber Affirms Stanišić’s and Župljanin’s Sentences

Stanisic Zupljanin

Mićo Stanišić (left) and Stojan Župljanin

Today, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) confirmed the convictions of Mićo Stanišić, former Minister of the Interior of Republika Srpska, and Stojan Župljanin, former Chief of the Regional Security Services Centre of Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). The Appeals Chamber affirmed that Stanišić and Župljanin are criminally responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in BiH in 1992, in 20 and eight municipalities respectively. The Judges affirmed both of the accused’s sentences of 22 years’ imprisonment.

The Appeals Chamber dismissed all of Stanišić’s and Župljanin’s grounds of appeal. It confirmed their convictions for committing, through participation in a joint criminal enterprise (JCE), persecutions as a crime against humanity and murder and torture as violations of the laws or customs of war. Župljanin’s convictions for committing extermination, through participation in a JCE, and ordering persecutions through plunder as crimes against humanity were also affirmed. Continue reading