The trial of an alleged commander of the Muslim-dominated Séléka rebel coalition, notably accused of torturing people detained during civil unrest in the Central African Republic in 2013, opens Monday (September 26th) before the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Mahamat Saïd Abdel Kani faces seven counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed between April and August 2013 in Bangui against detainees accused of supporting former President François Bozizé.
He was handed over in January 2021 by the Bangui authorities to the ICC on the basis of an arrest warrant issued in 2019. The court, based in The Hague, partially confirmed the charges brought against Saïd at the end of 2021, in particular the counts of torture, persecution, cruel treatment and outrages upon personal dignity.
The trial will start at 9:30 a.m. local time (7:30 a.m. GMT) at the ICC, created 20 years ago to try the worst atrocities committed around the world.
One of the poorest countries in the world, the Central African Republic was plunged into a bloody civil war after a coup in 2013 toppled President Francois Bozizé and plunged the country into civil war.
The fighting was between a coalition of armed groups that overthrew Bozizé, the mostly Muslim Séléka, and supporting militias, mostly Christian and animist anti-Balaka.
The violence would have left thousands dead and hundreds of thousands displaced, according to the ICC.
“Paralyzed, discolored or putrefied arms and legs”
Mahamat Saïd Abdel Kani, 52, prosecutors said, was a senior Seleka commander in charge of a police station where suspected Bozizé supporters were beaten and tortured after their arrest.
Sometimes referred to as a
"colonel"
,
"chief"
or
"director"
, the accused oversaw the day-to-day operations of the compound which belonged to a police unit called the "Central Office for the Repression of Banditry (OCRB)", according to documents from the police. court.
He is accused of having ordered his subordinates to mistreat detainees accused of supporting Bozizé or the anti-Balaka, in particular by subjecting them to the so-called “arbatachar” method of torture to extract confessions from them.
The technique involved binding the detainee's hands, elbows and legs very tightly behind his back, with the legs touching the elbows.
Some detainees reportedly had "paralyzed, discolored or putrefied arms and legs" as
a result of torture
, according to the documents.
Prisoners were allegedly thrown into a small underground cell, accessible only through a hole in the floor of Said's office at the OCRB headquarters in the capital, ICC prosecutors have claimed.
Two former Central African warlords, Patrice-Edouard Ngaïssona and Alfred Yekatom, who led anti-balaka militias, are currently on trial by the ICC for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The country of some five million people - which the UN says is the second least developed country in the world - remains plagued by violence and human rights abuses.