Former rebel leader seeks compensation from International Criminal Court after charges dropped

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A former rebel leader in the Central African Republic is seeking $4.2-million in compensation from the International Criminal Court after the court made a failed attempt to prosecute him for war crimes.

Maxime Mokom, who led a militia group and later become a government cabinet minister, was left stateless and homeless after he was detained for nearly two years in The Hague, his lawyer says.

The International Criminal Court abandoned its prosecution of Mr. Mokom last October, but he remained under house arrest in a hotel in the Netherlands for 43 days after that decision, allegedly because his release was mishandled by court officials.

Philippe Larochelle, a Canadian lawyer who represents Mr. Mokom, said a compensation payment would bolster the court’s credibility at a time when it faces global scrutiny over its high-profile investigations of top leaders in Israel and Russia. Compensation would show that the court can “right the wrong” of an unjust case, he told The Globe and Mail in an interview.

The ICC has appointed three judges to consider Mr. Mokom’s request for compensation, although a decision could take months.

Mr. Mokom was arrested in February, 2022, and sent to The Hague, where he was charged with committing a series of war crimes – including murder, rape and ordering attacks on civilians – while he was a senior leader in a militia known as the anti-balaka, which fought against a largely Muslim rebel group in the Central African Republic.

Nineteen months later, prosecutors withdrew all the charges, saying they lacked any “reasonable prospect” of a conviction. Several key witnesses had become unavailable or inaccessible, and attempts to find additional witnesses were unsuccessful, they said.

Mr. Larochelle said the prosecution case against Mr. Mokom was riddled with errors and false statements. For months, he said, the prosecutors failed to disclose a slew of evidence that would have helped to clear the defendant. Even after the charges were dropped, the court continued to restrict Mr. Mokom’s movements, he said.

“Today, he is an asylum seeker, with no legal status, no means of sustaining himself, and no realistic prospect of returning to the position he was in before his arrest,” Mr. Larochelle said in the application for compensation.

“No other ICC suspect has ended up indigent, distressed and homeless on the streets of a foreign state in which he has no legal status, and no reasonable prospect of reuniting with his family,” he said. “The court has left Mr. Mokom literally on the street to fend for himself.”

Mr. Mokom is unwilling to return to the Central African Republic because of fears he will be tortured and killed for his role in the political opposition. He was among a list of opposition members who were convicted in absentia and sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in his home country last year.

One of his defence witnesses in the ICC case has already been arrested and tortured by Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group who wield control over the military and police forces in the country, according to a court submission by Mr. Larochelle.

As an opposition politician, Mr. Mokom participated in negotiations aimed at the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Central African Republic, which would be viewed by the Russians as “a betrayal,” and he will be “an obvious and prime target” for the Russians if he is sent back to his homeland, the court submission says.

Mr. Mokom eventually left The Hague and is now seeking asylum in another European country. The Globe is not identifying his current location because of risks to his safety.

The ICC’s deputy prosecutor, Mame Mandiaye Niang, said the court withdrew the charges against Mr. Mokom “in the interests of justice and fairness.” In a video message on the court’s website, he said: “We must constantly assess the evidence. We must assess it objectively and rigorously.”

The case shows the “continued challenges for the ICC prosecutor’s office to mount sufficient evidence in court,” Human Rights Watch said in a report on the case. “Concerns about the court’s performance, including in conducting effective investigations, have been at the heart of calls for an independent expert assessment aimed at improving its delivery of justice.”

Two other members of the anti-balaka militia group are currently on trial at the ICC, while a member of another rebel group in the same country, Seleka, is also facing trial at the court. Those cases will not be affected by the withdrawal of the charges against Mr. Mokom, prosecutors say.