Congolese warlord gets 12 years
The International Criminal Court yesterday sentenced Congolese warlord Germain "Simba" Katanga to 12 years in jail for arming an ethnic militia that carried out a "particularly cruel" 2003 village massacre.
"The chamber sentences Germain Katanga to 12 years in prison," presiding Judge Bruno Cotte told the Hague-based court in its second sentencing since opening in 2003.
The almost seven years that Katanga has already spend in detention will be deducted from the sentence, he said.
Katanga, 36, was convicted in March of war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder and pillaging for his role in the attack on Bogoro village in the volatile eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on February 24, 2003.
Judges found that he armed fighters of the Patriotic Resistance Forces in Ituri (FRPI) who carried out the village massacre in which more than 200 people died.
The man once known as "Simba" (lion), showed no emotion as the judge read the sentence.
The ICC however cleared Katanga of charges of rape, sexual slavery and using child soldiers. Katanga's lawyers have appealed his conviction and now have another 30 days to appeal his sentence.
The Hague-based ICC, the world's only permanent independent tribunal to try the world's worst crimes, has so far only convicted one other suspect.
Katanga's arch-enemy and former Congolese rebel fighter Lubanga was sentenced in 2012 to 14 years for recruiting and enlisting child soldiers.
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