ICC convicts former Central African Republic militia leader

News|The Hague

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has convicted a Central African Republic militia commander of crimes against humanity, including torture.

Judges in The Hague on Wednesday found Mahamat Said Abdel Kani guilty over his role of running a Seleka detention facility in Bangui, where supporters of then-President Francois Bozize were rounded up and tortured during the country’s 2013 civil war.

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Said, 56, was acquitted of three war crimes charges as the judges ruled that the armed conflict had already ended when some of the alleged crimes happened.

A separate hearing will determine his sentence.

Judge Miatta Maria Samba said Said oversaw the torture at the Central Office for the Repression of Banditry, where detainees were whipped, waterboarded and bound using a method called “Arbatacher”, in which detainees’ hands, elbows and feet are tied together behind their backs.

Some prisoners were held in underground cells with no bathrooms or showers.

“The floor was covered in waste, and it smelled of faeces and urine,” Samba said.

She said a victim described how his life had been destroyed by the mistreatment.

Seleka rebel group commander Mahamat Said Abdel Kani sits in the courtroom during a hearing in the case in which he is accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes allegedly committed in Bangui in 2013, in The Hague, Netherlands, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026. (Remko De Waal/Pool Photo via AP) — Seleka commander Mahamat Said Abdel Kani sits in The Hague courtroom during a hearing in the case in which he is accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes allegedly committed in Bangui in 2013 [Remko De Waal/Pool Photo via AP]

Said, who denied the charges, appeared in court in jeans and a blue sweatshirt, looking unbothered as he shook his head when the verdict was read.

He was a senior figure in the Seleka coalition, which ousted Bozize in 2013, plunging the country into a conflict that killed thousands of people.

Bozize’s response, arming the “anti-Balaka” militia, fuelled more bloodshed before French troops helped secure the country in 2014 under a United Nations mandate.

The ICC has investigated violence in the Central African Republic since 2014 and has already convicted two anti-Balaka leaders, including former Sports Minister Patrice-Edouard Ngaissona, who was sentenced to 12 years, and former MP Alfred Yekatom who was sentenced to 15 years.

Said is the first Seleka member to be convicted.

The country has experienced relative stability since a 2019 peace agreement.