“Mr Bemba cannot be held criminally liable for the crimes committed by his troops in the Central African Republic,” presiding judge Christine Van den Wyngaert told the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
“The Appeals Chamber in this instant reverses the conviction against Mr Bemba... and in relation to the remaining criminal acts it enters an acquittal,” Van den Wyngaert said.
Bemba, 55, dressed in a blue-grey suit, light blue shirt and dark blue tie showed little emotion as the judge read the verdict, but his supporters exploded in cheers on the public gallery, prompting the judge to call them to order.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) capital of Kinshasa, Bemba’s supporters erupted in joy as they watched the announcement on live TV, and cheering was even heard at the National Assembly, AFP reporters said.
In 2016, the ICC’s judges had unanimously found Bemba — nicknamed “Miniature Mobutu” — guilty on five charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for abuses committed by his troops during a five-month rampage in the neighbouring CAR.
The heavy-set leader had sent his militia, the Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC) — a rebel force that Bemba later transformed into a political organisation — into the CAR in October 2002 to quash a coup against the then president, Ange-Felix Patasse.
At his sentencing in 2016, trial judges blamed Bemba for failing to stop a series of “sadistic and cruel” rapes and murders as well as pillaging by his soldiers.
The trial was the first before the ICC to focus on sexual violence as a weapon of war. It was also the first to determine whether a military commander bore responsibility for the conduct of troops under his control. But in a scathing assessment, the Hague-based ICC’s appeal judges said Bemba was “erroneously” convicted for specific criminal acts.
Trial judges were also wrong in their finding that Bemba could in fact prevent crimes being committed by his MLC troops, they ruled.
“The trial chamber ignored significant testimonial evidence that Mr Bemba’s ability to investigate and punish crimes in the CAR was limited,” judge Van den Wyngaert said.