The International Criminal Court will deliver its verdict Friday in the trial of Congolese ex-militia leader Germain Katanga, accused of using child soldiers in a 2003 attack on a village that killed 200 people.
Judge Bruno Cotte was to read the verdict at 0830 GMT in The Hague in the case against Katanga, the one-time commander of the ethnic-based Patriotic Resistance Forces in Ituri, operating in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s mineral-rich northeast.
The case is a key test of the prosecutors’ ability to bring solid cases and win convictions at the tribunal.
The verdict will be only the ICC’s third since opening its doors more than a decade ago. It is also the first time that the charges at the court have included sexual violence.
Katanga, 35, went on trial more than four years ago facing seven counts of war crimes and three of crimes against humanity, including murder, sexual slavery and rape for his alleged role in the attack on the small village of Bogoro on February 24, 2003.
Prosecutors allege Katanga, also known as “Simba”, and his force of the Ngiti and Lendu tribes attacked villagers of the Hema ethnic group with machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and machetes, murdering around 200 people.
france24
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