The trial said to open at the International Criminal Court – Global Affairs

Mahamat Said Abdel Kani – a most senior Muslim leader Seleka militia – pleaded not guilty to all charges related to atrocities committed in 2013, in the Central African Republic’s capital, Bangui.

Much of the violence stems from clashes between Seleka and the predominantly Christian Anti-balaka faction.

Job

Before committing the crime, from late 2012 to early 2013, SelekaThe militia advanced to the capital, attacking police stations, capturing military bases, capturing towns and regional capitals, and targeting suspected supporters of President François Bozizé.

They occupied Bangui in March 2013 and, with a force of 20,000 men, looted homes while looking for Bozize sympathizers, shot those who fled behind or killed others in their homes.

“Women and girls are gang-raped in front of their children or parents; some died from their wounds,” the arrest warrant for Mr Said stated.

The civilians were targeted

“A portion of the civilian population is targeted through various acts of murder, imprisonment, torture, rape, political, ethnic and religious persecution, and home robbery of non-Muslims. and others believed to be complicit in or supporting the Bozizé government,” the order continued.

Mr. Kani’s charges include imprisonment, torture, ill-treatment, forced disappearances and other inhumane acts, committed in Bangui between April and November 2013.

He witnessed the “surveillance of the daily operations” of a notorious detention center where men were arrested after being arrested by Seleka members.

Amazing thing

“Prisoners are held in small, dark, cramped cells with only a bucket for toilets and little or no food, forcing detainees to drink their own urine.” the ICC statement reads.

Detainees were beaten with rubber bands, beaten with rifles and told: “We will kill them one by one.”

Often prisoners had to spend several hours in a particular tense position, so painful that some “wanted to be killed”. The position, known as “arbatacha”, involves tying the detainees’ hands and feet behind their back, with their feet touching their elbows.

Extract confession

Mr Said allegedly called the technique “the most effective for obtaining confessions”, the ICC order explained, noting that he was responsible for deciding which prisoners should be transferred to an underground cell. The land is under his office.

At another detention center known as CEDAD, where conditions were described as “inhumane”, the court found Mr Said to be “the commander of the operation” and “kept a list of those to be arrested”. ” or order their arrest.

The trial continues.