Trial against former Congolese vice-president to open on April 27

Nov 6, 2009, 8:56 GMT

The Hague - A trial against former Congolese vice-president Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo is due to start April 27 at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, according to a court statement.

In their trial date decision issued late Thursday, judges Adrian Fulford, Elizabeth Odio Benito and Joyce Aluoch wrote that Bemba, 47, is to face five counts of war crimes, including murder and rape, allegedly committed in the Central African Republic (CAR) in 2002 and 2003.

Bemba became vice-president of the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2003. He was previously president of the Congo Liberation Movement (MLC), a rebel group that fought in the DR Congo's 1998-2003 war.

He is accused of leading MLC troops in a campaign of murder, torture and rape in the CAR.

Arrested by the Belgian authorities on May 24, 2008, he was transferred to the ICC detention centre in The Hague on July 3 of that year and first heard at the ICC on July 4, 2008.

Operating under the auspices of the United Nations, the ICC was established by the Statute of Rome in 1998, an international agreement signed by 106 countries.

Since it began operating in 2002, the ICC has investigated war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, the Central African Republic and Darfur.