Prosecutor v. Bemba

Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo (Bemba) (defendant) was a politician in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He also led a militia group. The president of the Central African Republic (CAR) invited Bemba’s militia into his country to help stop a coup attempt. The militia tried but failed to stop the coup, and the president was overthrown. Bemba’s militia was alleged to have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity while trying to stop the coup, including acts of sexual violence. Bemba himself did not travel to CAR, remaining in the DRC during the events. The International Criminal Court (ICC) convicted Bemba of committing crimes against humanity and war crimes based on the command-responsibility theory, which imposed criminal liability on military commanders who failed to prevent or repress crimes committed by their troops. The court found that Bemba did not take enough actions to prevent or repress crimes by his militia. Although Bemba had created commissions to investigate crimes in CAR, the court dismissed the efforts as insufficient, especially because they seemed to be motivated by a desire to rehabilitate the militia’s public image. Bemba appealed, arguing that the court failed to properly take into account the realities of the situation, including the fact that his troops were operating in a foreign country and it was more difficult for him to take certain steps to prevent crimes as a remote commander, especially compared to lower-ranking commanders on the ground with the troops.