Prosecutor v. Germain Katanga

Armed groups fought for control of the resource-rich Ituri area in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Germain Katanga (defendant) commanded one of these groups, the Forces de Résistance Patriotique d’Ituri. Katanga’s forces and other soldiers attacked the civilian village of Bogoro, murdering, pillaging, and enslaving the village’s civilian residents. The prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) charged Katanga with coordinating with another group’s leader to intentionally “wipe out” the civilian village, knowing that the combined forces would commit the crimes against humanity that actually occurred. The coordination charge required that the prosecutor prove the attack would not have occurred without Katanga’s actions. At trial, Katanga testified in his own defense, admitting that he had played a role in planning the attack but claiming the attack had a military aim (ousting armed forces embedded in the village) and that other groups had been more involved. After the close of evidence, the trial chamber began deliberating. During this deliberations phase, the trial chamber recharacterized the charges against Katanga, changing the legal charge that Katanga had personally coordinated a criminal attack to one that he had only contributed to a group’s criminal attack. Katanga appealed to the ICC’s appeals chamber. Katanga argued that (1) the rules did not allow charges to be recharacterized after the close of evidence and (2) the late modification deprived him of a fair trial because if he had known he faced a contribution charge instead of a coordination charge, he would not have testified and would have presented different evidence.