THE HAGUE – Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court asked judges on Monday to find two men accused of leading Christian-dominated militias in attacks on Muslims in Central African Republic in 2013 and 2014 guilty of all the charges against them.
In their closing arguments, prosecutors said they had proved beyond reasonable doubt that Patrice-Edouard Ngaissona and Alfred Yekatom helped to lead a campaign of violence against Muslim civilians and that the two suspects were guilty of all the war crimes and crimes against humanity charges against them.
Both men pleaded not guilty at the start of their trial in 2021.
Prosecutor Kweku Vanderpuye dismissed the defence’s attempts to cast Ngaissona, a former football executive, as someone who tried to end the violence.
“Ngaissona was not a man of peace,” he said, adding that the former sports official was a long-time leader of the mostly Christian militia forces known as “anti-Balaka”.
Yekatom, nicknamed “Rambo”, commanded some 3,000 militia members and was feared even within his own ranks, personally shooting three of his own fighters as traitors, the prosecution said.
The anti-Balaka militia took up arms in 2013 in response to months of looting and killing by mostly Muslim Seleka rebels who had seized power in March the same year.
The ICC has been investigating the violence in Central African Republic since May 2014. There is another ongoing trial of one Seleka leader. Last month the ICC unveiled an arrest warrant for another Christian militia leader.
(Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg; Editing by Ros Russell)
