By Kylie M Tsudama
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – Yesterday the appeal chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) ruled to uphold charges against Germain Katanga, commander of a Congolese militia, and a trial against him may proceed.

Earlier this year Katanga challenged the admissibility of the case before the ICC saying that the case should be dropped because he is also under investigation by authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo).  He argued that the charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity that he faces in the ICC could not be upheld because he is being tried for the same crimes in the DR Congo and the ICC case violated complementarity.  The appeals court chose to uphold the trial court’s decision to hear the case.

“The appeals chamber is convinced that the (trial) court decided rightly that the case against the accused can be heard,” said Judge Daniel Ntanda Nsereko.

DR Congo Justice Minister Emmanuel-Janvier Luzolo and other officials took part in the hearing at the ICC and insisted to the court that all charges in the DR Congo had been dropped.  They believed that the appropriate place to try Katanga was in the ICC.

“The DRC has made it clear that it wished for him to be prosecuted before the ICC,” Nsereko said.

Katanga is the former leader of the Front for Patriotic Resistance of Ituri (FRPI).  He is being tried with fellow defendant Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui, who is the former leader of the Nationalist and Integrationist Front (FNI) rebel group.  They are both facing trial for murder, rape, and other atrocities committed in February 2003 when their forces jointly attacked Bogoro in Ituri, a mineral-rich village in northeastern DR Congo.  Katanga is also accused of using women as sex slaves and enlisting child soldiers.  He faces three counts of crimes against humanity and six counts of war crimes.

The joint trial is set to begin on November 24, a postponement from the original start date of September 24 because of the lost appeal and the prosecution’s need for more time to prepare its 1,000 pages of evidence and witness details.

So far, the ICC has issued four arrest warrants for war crimes in the DR Congo.  The other two men accused are Thomas Lubanga, ex-militia chief who is currently on trial in The Hague, and Bosco Ntaganda who is still at large.

For more information, please see:

AFP – DR Congo Warlord to be Tried at War Crimes Trial – 25 September 2009

ICC – Appeals Chamber Upholds the Decision on the Admissibility of the Case Against Germain Katanga – 25 September 2009

Jurist – ICC Upholds Charges Against Accused DRC Rebel Leader – 25 September 2009

UN News Centre – Trial of Congolese Militia Leader Can Proceed, International Criminal Court Rules – 25 September 2009