The International Criminal Court has convicted a Central African Republic militia commander of crimes against humanity, including torture and unlawful imprisonment.
Judges in The Hague on Wednesday found Mahamat Said Abdel Kani, 56, guilty over his role 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.
Said was acquitted of three war crimes charges after judges ruled that the armed conflict had already ended when some of the alleged crimes took place. A separate hearing will determine his sentence.
Judge Miatta Maria Samba said Said oversaw torture at the Central Office for the Repression of Banditry. Detainees at the facility were whipped, waterboarded, and bound using a method called "Arbatacher," in which a prisoner's hands, elbows, and feet are tied together behind their back.
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 added that one victim described how his life had been destroyed by the mistreatment.
Said, who denied all charges, appeared in court wearing jeans and a blue sweatshirt. He shook his head as the verdict was read, appearing unbothered.
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 further bloodshed before French troops helped stabilise the country in 2014 under a United Nations mandate.
Said is the first Seleka member to be convicted by the ICC. The court has investigated violence in the Central African Republic since 2014 and has previously convicted two anti-Balaka leaders: former Sports Minister Patrice-Edouard Ngaissona, sentenced to 12 years, and former MP Alfred Yekatom, sentenced to 15 years.
The Central African Republic has experienced relative stability since a peace agreement was reached in 2019.
