The International Criminal Court has sentenced Democratic Republic of Congo’s former vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba to 12 months in prison.
He has also been fined 300,000 euros for witness tampering during his trial for war crimes trial.
Bemba will however not serve the jail term. This is because he already served prison terms during his earlier conviction on war crimes.
In June the International Criminal Court (ICC) upheld an appeal against the 2016 conviction of Bemba.
Bemba was convicted in 2016 on charges of having committed war crimes by allowing his forces to go on rampage in Central African Republic killing people in 2002 and 2003.
Last year judges at the ICC added a year to Bemba’s 18-year jail term. That was for attempting to bribe witnesses during his war crimes trial.
Bemba, who was vice president of the Democratic Republic of Congo from 2003 to 2006, was then ordered to pay a $323,670.00 fine to the court’s fund supporting victims of atrocities.
But the ICC overturned his 2016 conviction by upholding his appeal against that ruling.
Bemba was prevented from standing in December’s presidential election in his country because of the conviction for witness tampering.
Source: Africafeeds.com
