UN-Backed Court to Begin In-Absentia Trial of Former CAR President Bozizé on 2009-2013 Atrocity Charges
The Special Criminal Court will try François Bozizé on Tuesday for alleged crimes against humanity committed between 2009 and 2013. Three of his former officers remain in pre-trial detention in Bangui.
France 24The UN-backed Special Criminal Court in the Central African Republic will begin the trial in absentia of former president François Bozizé on Tuesday. The charges cover crimes against humanity committed between 2009 and 2013, including murder, enforced disappearance, torture and rape allegedly carried out by members of Bozizé's security forces.
Bozizé, 79, seized power in a 2003 coup and was overthrown ten years later by rebels.
He has lived in exile in Guinea-Bissau since March 2023. Three of his former senior military officers—Eugene Barret Ngaikosset, Vianney Semndiro and Firmin Junior Danboy—are in pre-trial detention in the Central African Republic. The case will be heard by the Special Criminal Court, a hybrid body in Bangui that includes both Central African and foreign judges.
In February 2024 the court issued an international arrest warrant for Bozizé over possible crimes against humanity committed by his Presidential Guard at a civilian prison and a military training centre in the central town of Bossembele. " The court is responsible for investigating war crimes committed since 2003.
The Central African Republic has experienced civil wars and authoritarian rule since independence from France in 1960.
Bozizé's 2013 overthrow by the Seleka rebel coalition, largely composed of Muslim fighters, triggered renewed civil war. Bozizé later formed militias known as anti-Balakas, dominated by Christians and animists, in an attempt to regain power. Thousands of civilians were killed, and both sides have been accused by the United Nations of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
