The ‘warlord’ Bosco Ntaganda, sentenced to 30 years in prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has been transferred this Wednesday to Belgium to serve his sentence in Leuze-en-Hainaut prison, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has confirmed.
«The ICC relies on the support of states for the enforcement of its sentences and appreciates the voluntary cooperation of the Belgian government in this case,» said ICC Registrar Peter Lewis, according to a statement released by the body via its website.
Individuals convicted by the ICC serve their sentences in a state designated by the court from a list of countries that have shown their willingness to host these individuals in their prisons. Ntanganda was convicted in 2019 on 18 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for actions committed between 2002 and 2003 in Ituri province in eastern DRC.
The 30-year prison sentence against Ntaganda, known as ‘The Exterminator’, will be reduced by the six years he spent in ICC custody between March 2013 and November 2019. The sentence was confirmed in March 2021 by the ICC Appeals Chamber, a decision that is now final.
In addition, the court awarded in March 2021 compensation of $30 million (€25.25 million) for Ntanganda’s victims, including direct and indirect victims of his attacks, ‘child soldiers’, victims who have been sex slaves or raped, and children born as a result of these two situations.
The ICC issued a warrant for Ntaganda’s arrest in 2006, although he was not arrested until 2013, while the trial kicked off in 2015. The former rebel leader was accused of being one of the top leaders of the M23 rebel group, which maintained a rebellion in the east of the country between 2012 and 2013 and which has reignited hostilities during the last few months in eastern DRC, accentuating the diplomatic crisis between Kinshasa and Kigali.
The ‘warlord’ was also the head of the militia National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) and a former member of the Rwandan Patriotic Army, as well as being accused of being the ‘number two’ of the Patriotic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (FPLC), the armed wing of the Union of Congolese Patriots.
Ntaganda surrendered in 2013 at the US Embassy in Rwanda, asking to be handed over to the ICC after apparently fleeing DRC due to internal disputes within the armed groups. Prosecutors said Ntaganda not only personally committed crimes such as murder and rape, but ordered and supervised his troops to commit similar atrocities.
