FILE - In this June 21, 2016 file photo, former Congolese Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba enters the courtroom of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands. International Criminal Court appeals judges overturned Friday, June 8, 2018 the convictions of former Congolese Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba for atrocities committed by his forces in Central African Republic. The reversal delivered a serious blow to ICC prosecutors by scrapping all the convictions in the court’s first trial to focus largely on sexual violence and on command responsibility - the legal principle that a commanding officer can be held responsible for crimes committed by his or her troops or for failing to prevent or punish the crimes. (Michael Kooren, Pool via AP, File)

FILE - In this June 21, 2016 file photo, former Congolese Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba enters the courtroom of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands. International Criminal Court appeals judges overturned Friday, June 8, 2018 the convictions of former Congolese Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba for atrocities committed by his forces in Central African Republic. The reversal delivered a serious blow to ICC prosecutors by scrapping all the convictions in the court’s first trial to focus largely on sexual violence and on command responsibility - the legal principle that a commanding officer can be held responsible for crimes committed by his or her troops or for failing to prevent or punish the crimes. (Michael Kooren, Pool via AP, File)

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — In a blow to prosecutors at the International Criminal Court and to victims of rape and murder in a conflict-ravaged African nation, appeals judges on Friday overturned the convictions of former Congolese Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba for atrocities committed by his forces in Central African Republic.

The reversal delivered a serious setback to ICC prosecutors by scrapping all the convictions in the court’s first trial to focus largely on sexual violence and on command responsibility — the legal principle that a commanding officer can be held responsible for crimes committed by his or her troops or for failing to prevent or punish the crimes.

“We find it regrettable and troubling,” Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said. “And I can only regret that this ‘significant and unexplained departure’ from the court’s previous jurisprudence, as the dissenting judges described it, has taken place in the most serious case of sexual and gender-based violence that has been decided upon by this court to date.”

The ruling could have implications for possible future convictions of commanding officers in other conflicts.

Bemba’s lawyer, Peter Haynes, welcomed the decision.

“It’s not some acquittal on a technicality,” he said. “They went to the very heart of a commander’s culpability, namely his responsibility to ensure that when put in the knowledge of crimes he takes steps to investigate them and punish them.”

Bemba was the most senior suspect convicted by the global court and his 18-year sentence was the highest handed down in the court’s history.

Bemba, wearing a suit and tie, showed little emotion as Presiding Judge Christine Van den Wyngaert reversed his convictions. Bemba’s supporters in the packed public gallery were not so reserved; they cheered, whistled and hugged one another for so long that Van den Wyngaert threatened to halt proceedings if order was not restored.

The appeals chamber, in a 3-2 majority ruling, said the trial chamber “erred in its evaluation of Mr. Bemba’s motivation and the measures that he could have taken in light of the limitations he faced in investigating and prosecuting crimes as a remote commander sending troops to a foreign country.”

The appeals chamber also said Bemba was wrongly convicted for crimes that were not even included in the charges against him.

The two judges who disagreed wrote a dissenting opinion in which they said the acquittals were based on “an incorrect standard of appellate review,” the court said.

Bemba was found guilty in 2016 as a military commander of two counts of crimes against humanity and three counts of war crimes for a campaign of murder, rape and pillaging by his troops, known as the Movement for the Liberation of Congo, in 2002 and 2003.

He denied responsibility for the crimes. He was sentenced in 2016 to 18 years in prison.

Bemba has been in custody at the ICC for nearly a decade after authorities in Belgium arrested him there in 2008 and sent him to The Hague.

Van den Wyngaert said Bemba would not immediately be released because a separate panel of ICC judges is still considering what sentence he should be given in a conviction for interfering with witnesses in his trial. She urged that trial panel to quickly decide whether he should be set free.

The court scheduled a hearing for Tuesday to discuss the issue.

Haynes, the lawyer, was angry that Bemba was not released immediately.

“I think that is unacceptable. It is immoral and it may even be illegal,” he told reporters.

Bemba, a former Congolese senator and vice president, was the commander of the Movement for the Liberation of Congo when he was asked in 2002 and 2003 to send troops by President Ange-Felix Patasse in neighboring Central African Republic, or CAR.

At the time of his original conviction, judges said that women, girls and men were targeted by Bemba’s forces, often with multiple soldiers raping women and girls in front of family members. In one incident, a man’s wife was gang-raped and when he protested he, too, was raped at gunpoint.

Friday’s ruling does not mean those crimes did not take place, but that Bemba cannot be held criminally responsible for them.

Solomon Sacco, head of Amnesty International’s international justice team, said “the decision will be felt as a huge blow for the many victims of the ‘war against women’ waged in the Central African Republic through a horrifying campaign of rape and sexual violence.”

“5,229 survivors of Bemba’s atrocities participated in the ICC proceedings — for these brave individuals, as well as thousands of other victims in CAR, the pursuit of truth, justice and reparations will continue,” he said.

Sacco said the ICC prosecutor’s office and judicial authorities in CAR “must learn from this decision and redouble their efforts to investigate and prosecute alleged perpetrators of crimes under international law.”

Karine Bonneau of the International Federation for Human Rights slammed Friday’s decision.

“Twenty years after its creation, has the ICC just scuttled itself?” she said in a statement. “Delivering this judgment, it seems to say to the warlords: ‘As long as you are not on the scene, let your troops commit the worst crimes and the worst abominations, say that you have nothing to do with that and we will not condemn you.’”

It remains to be seen what Bemba will do once he is released. Haynes said he likely would join his family in Belgium.

Prominent Congolese opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi, speaking at an Atlantic Council event last month in Washington, said Bemba’s Movement for the Liberation of Congo was part of a new political alliance against President Joseph Kabila.

Frustration is rising in Congo against Kabila as the presidential election has been delayed since late 2016.</s>Today, 8 June 2018, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court ("ICC" or "Court") decided, by majority, to acquit Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo from the charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Judge Christine Van den Wyngaert, Presiding Judge in this appeal, read a summary of the Judgment during a public hearing. Mr Bemba will remain in detention on account of another case in which he has been convicted of offences against the administration of justice, pending a decision of Trial Chamber VII in that case.

Judge Sanji Mmasenono Monageng and Judge Piotr Hofmański appended a joint dissenting opinion in which they explained why they disagreed with the majority's decision to acquit Mr Bemba. Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji as well as Judge Van den Wyngaert and Judge Howard Morrison appended separate opinions.

The Appeals Chamber's Judgment reversed Trial Chamber III's decision of 21 March 2016, which had concluded that, as a person effectively acting as a military commander and with effective control over the Mouvement de libération du Congo ("MLC") troops, Mr Bemba was criminally responsible pursuant to article 28(a) of the ICC Rome Statute for the crimes against humanity of murder and rape and the war crimes of murder, rape and pillaging committed by the MLC troops in the Central African Republic ("CAR") from on or about 26 October 2002 to 15 March 2003.

Having considered all written submissions of the parties and participants and the oral observations made during the appeal hearings held in January 2018, the Appeals Chamber found, by majority, that Trial Chamber III had erred on two important issues:
• None It had erroneously convicted Mr Bemba for specific criminal acts that were outside the scope of the charges as confirmed; and
• None In its assessment of whether Mr Bemba took all necessary and reasonable measures to prevent, repress or punish the commission by his subordinates of the other crimes within the scope of the case, the Trial Chamber made serious errors. More specifically, the Trial Chamber erred in its evaluation of Mr Bemba's motivation and the measures that he could have taken in light of the limitations he faced in investigating and prosecuting crimes as a remote commander sending troops to a foreign country; in whether he made efforts to refer the allegations of crimes to the CAR's authorities; and in whether he intentionally limited the mandate of commissions and inquiries that he established. Furthermore, in the view of the Appeals Chamber majority, there was an apparent discrepancy between the limited number of crimes within the case's scope for which Mr Bemba was held responsible and the Trial Chamber's assessment of which measures Mr Bemba should have taken.

On that basis, the Appeals Chamber concluded, by majority, that Mr Bemba's conviction must be reversed, that Mr Bemba cannot be held criminally liable under article 28 of the ICC Rome Statute for the crimes within the scope of the case that were committed by MLC troops during the CAR operation and that he must be acquitted thereof.

Judge Monageng and Judge Hofmański found that all criminal acts for which Mr Bemba was convicted fell within the scope of the case that the Prosecutor had brought against him. They also disagreed with the majority that the Trial Chamber erred when it found that Mr Bemba had failed to take all necessary and reasonable measures to prevent or repress MLC crimes; in their view, the majority reached this conclusion based on an incorrect standard of appellate review. The judges in the minority would have confirmed Mr Bemba's conviction.

Following this Judgment, and while there is no reason to continue Mr Bemba's detention on the basis of the present case, it is for Trial Chamber VII to decide, shortly, whether Mr Bemba's continued detention is warranted in relation to his conviction for offences against the administration of justice.

The Appeals Chamber also dismissed as moot the appeals that Mr Bemba and the Prosecutor had brought against the sentence Trial Chamber III had imposed.

Judgment on the appeal of Mr Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo against Trial Chamber III's "Judgment pursuant to Article 74 of the Statute"

For further information on the case, click here.

For further information, please contact Fadi El Abdallah, Spokesperson and Head of Public Affairs Unit, International Criminal Court, by telephone at: +31 (0)70 515-9152 or +31 (0)6 46448938 or by e-mail at: fadi.el-abdallah@icc-cpi.int

You can also follow the Court's activities on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, YouTube and Flickr</s>Former Congolese vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba has had an 18-year sentence for war crimes committed in the Central African Republic overturned on appeal.

In 2016, ICC judges unanimously found Bemba 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.

But in a scathing assessment, the Hague-based ICC's appeal judges said Bemba ­ nicknamed 'Miniature Mobutu' after the late Congolese tyrant was 'erroneously' convicted for specific criminal acts.

'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.

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 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.

'Our leader, we await you,' some chanted.

'I weep for joy. Jean-Pierre Bemba was a dead man. He has just been revived,' one said.

The heavy-set leader had sent his militia, the Congolese Liberation Movement, which he turned into a political organisation, into the CAR in 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.

The ICC court of appeal said that trial judges were also wrong in their finding that Bemba could in fact prevent crimes being committed by his MLC troops.

'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.

At an appeal hearing early this year, Bemba's lawyers argued that he did not maintain effective control over his troops because there was no physical evidence that he gave any orders or that he was present on the ground.

They also asked the judges to lower his sentence, given that he had already spent close to a decade behind bars at the ICC's detention centre in The Hague. His sentence was the longest of any individual convicted by the ICC so far.

Prosecutors however also appealed, asking judges to increase Bemba's sentence to 25 years as it 'did not reflect the gravity' of all the crimes.

Bemba nevertheless remains behind bars in a separate case in which he was sentenced to one year in jail for bribing witnesses and fined €300,000 (£264,000) during his main war crimes trial.

Judges are to decide 'shortly whether Mr Bemba's continued detention is warranted,' Van den Wyngaert said.

Bemba had unsuccessfully opposed President Joseph Kabila in elections in 2006.

After his militia clashed violently with government forces in 2007, he was forced out of the DRC but retains a groundswell of support.</s>The International Criminal Court (ICC) has overturned the war crimes conviction of Jean-Pierre Bemba, a former vice president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on appeal.

Presiding judge Christine Van den Wijngaert said on Friday that Bemba could not be held responsible for atrocities carried out by troops under his control in the neighbouring Central African Republic, and that trial judges had failed to consider the efforts he made to stop crimes once he became aware of them.

Bemba was sentenced to 18 years in prison in June 2016 for alleged crimes, including murder and rape, in what was described as a landmark ruling after a five-year trial.

Judges in the earlier trial said Bemba had failed to stop a series of "sadistic and cruel" rapes and murders by his militia, known as the MLC.

He later got an extra year and a fine for attempting to interfere with witnesses in his trial.

"Mr Bemba cannot be held criminally responsible for the crimes committed by MLC troops during the Central African Republic operation," Van den Wijngaert said, reading the ruling of a 5-judge appeal panel.

Van den Wijngaert said Bemba's efforts to stop the crimes "extinguished his responsibility in full".

Lambert Mende, a spokesperson for the Congolese government, said Bemba has the right to return home once he is released.

"There's not even any question over it," Mende told Reuters news agency.

"Do you know of any other country where a Congolese citizen is supposed to live? All Congolese are free to live in DRC"

Bemba's acquittal is a huge blow for prosecutors, as his conviction was one of the few they had won since the court's establishment in 2002.

Bemba was the highest-ranking politician convicted by the permanent war crimes court, and his case had been seen as establishing a precedent that political and military officials may be held liable for the actions of troops under their command.

Leaders across Africa have long accused the ICC of unfairly targeting the continent.

In 2016, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni described the international tribunal as "useless" as he applauded South Africa and Burundi's efforts to withdraw from the court.

Earlier in April, Rwandan President Paul Kagame reprimanded the ICC for its bias against Africa, saying it has failed to mete out justice in any other part of the world.

"From the time of its inception, I said there was a fraud basis on which it was set up and how it was going to be used. I told people that this would be a court to try Africans, not people from across the world," Kagame said.

The permanent court in The Hague, the Netherlands, was established by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court treaty in 1998 in order to prosecute and punish individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of aggression.</s>THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — International Criminal Court appeals judges have overturned the convictions of former Congolese Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba for atrocities committed by his forces in Central African Republic.

Bemba was found guilty in 2016 as a military commander of two counts of crimes against humanity and three war crimes for a campaign of murder, rape and pillaging by his troops in 2002 and 2003. He denied responsibility for the crimes.

In a 3-2 majority ruling on Friday, the court’s appeals chamber reversed some of his convictions and acquitted him on other charges, saying the trial chamber in his case made a series of errors in its analysis of his role as a commanding officer and in other aspects of the case.

Bemba was sentenced in 2016 to 18 years in prison.</s>The former Congolese vice-president, Jean-Pierre Bemba, has had his convictions for war crimes and crimes against humanity overturned.

The appeals chamber of the international criminal court in the Hague decided by a majority on Friday to acquit the former politician following an earlier hearing.

The 55-year-old warlord commanded a militia that committed mass murder, rape and pillage in neighbouring Central African Republic, the court ruled at the end of his original trial in 2016.

The verdicts were considered a legal landmark, since it was the first time the ICC had convicted a defendant of rape or “command responsibility for the actions of troops”. According to a legal principle established by other UN tribunals, a commander can be found responsible for failing to take action to stop crimes he knows are being committed by subordinates.

There were cheers from Bemba’s supporters in the gallery when the appeal decision was announced by the five-judge panel, headed by judge Christine Van den Wyngaert.

Bemba had been found guilty of two counts of crimes against humanity (murder and rape) and three counts of war crimes (murder, rape, and pillaging) committed in CAR between October 2002 and March 2003. His troops had entered the country to prop up the president, Ange-Félix Patassé, who was eventually ousted.

He was subsequently sentenced to 18 years in prison. His appeal was against both the sentence and the verdicts. 



Bemba, who fled the Democratic Republic of the Congo after losing a presidential poll, was arrested in Belgium in 2008 and transferred to the ICC’s detention centre in The Hague. His trial started in November 2010 and lasted four years. It heard from 77 witnesses.

His defence lawyers insisted he had no control over his 1,500 troops. “There is not a single documentary piece of evidence that shows any orders passing from Bemba and going to his troops in Central African Republic,” his lawyer Kate Gibson said in her closing argument at the original trial.

Bemba will remain in custody on account of another case in which he was convicted of offences against the administration of justice, the ICC said in a statement.</s>The International Criminal Court (ICC) has overturned the conviction for war crimes and crimes against humanity of former Democratic Republic of Congo Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba.

Bemba was found guilty in 2016 of crimes committed in the neighbouring Central African Republic (CAR) from 2002 to 2003.

He was accused of failing to prevent his rebels killing and raping.

But a judge has now said he cannot be held responsible for their actions.

Christine Van den Wijngaert also said the judges in the 2016 case had failed to take into account his attempts to stop the crimes once he was made aware they were taking place.
• Africa Live: For more on this and other stories from around the continent
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The decision to overturn the 18-year sentence was greeted with cheers from his supporters in the gallery.

But human rights group Amnesty International said it was a “huge blow” for the victims of a “horrifying campaign of rape and sexual violence”, as it called on the authorities to redouble their efforts to prosecute those who had carried it out.

ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda described the ruling as “regrettable and troubling”.

Before Friday’s decision, the ICC had issued verdicts in six cases, with nine people being convicted and one acquitted, according to its website. ​

More than 5,000 survivors took part in the proceedings against Bemba, said Amnesty’s head of international justice, Solomon Sacco.

“For these brave individuals, as well as thousands of other victims in CAR, the pursuit of truth, justice and reparations will continue,” he added.

Bemba’s conviction marked several milestones for the ICC. It was the first time the court had focused on rape as a weapon of war, and the first time a suspect had been convicted for crimes committed by others under his command.

The court heard how Bemba sent more than 1,000 fighters to CAR back in 2002 to help then President Ange Felix Patasse put down an attempted coup.

But his forces committed acts of extreme violence against civilians – crimes which the original judges said Bemba was made aware of but did nothing to stop.

However, appeal Judge Van den Wyngaert said the judges in the original case had “ignored significant testimonial evidence that Bemba’s ability to investigate and punish crimes in CAR was limited”.

Appeal judges also said he had been “erroneously” convicted for specific criminal acts.

Bemba, who has already spent almost a decade in jail, will not be immediately released from detention in The Hague after he lost a separate appeal against a conviction for bribing witnesses.

CAR, meanwhile, has remained in an almost constant state of turmoil. The International Committee of the Red Cross warned in January that half its population was in need of humanitarian aid, while the United Nations has had a peacekeeping force in the country since 2013.

A report by Human Rights Watch in October 2017 said fighters in its most recent conflict, which has been raging for more than five years, continued to use sexual violence to “terrorise women and children”.
• A well-connected businessman and the son of prominent Congolese businessman Bemba Saolona
• 1998: Helped by Uganda to form MLC rebel group in Democratic Republic of Congo
• 2006: Loses run-off election to President Joseph Kabila but gets most votes in western DR Congo, including Kinshasa
• 2007: Flees to Belgium after clashes in Kinshasa
• 2008: Arrested in Brussels and handed over to ICC
• 2016: Found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity</s>The International Criminal Court on Friday overturned the war crimes conviction of former Democratic Republic of Congo Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba, a huge blow to prosecutors that could also dramatically shake up politics in his home country.

Bemba was one of only four people convicted by the permanent war crimes court in its 16 years of operation, and the highest ranking among them. He had been convicted of murder, rape and pillage for actions by fighters he sent to Central African Republic to back CAR’s then-president Ange-Felix Patasse.

A crowd of hundreds of supporters cheered outside Bemba’s party headquarters in the Congo capital Kinshasa, shouting “Our president is free!” and “Jean Pierre Bemba is our candidate!”

Judge Christine Van den Wijngaert said Bemba, once the leader of Congo’s main opposition party, could not be held responsible for crimes carried out by troops under his control in CAR in 2002-2003.

Dismissing his 18-year-sentence, she said trial judges had failed to consider his efforts to stop crimes committed by his Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC) once he became aware of them, and how difficult it would have been for him to control the troops’ actions from a distance.

“Mr Bemba cannot be held criminally responsible for the crimes committed by MLC troops during the Central African Republic operation,” she said, reading the ruling of a 5-judge appeal panel. Bemba’s efforts to stop the crimes “extinguished his responsibility in full”.

His acquittal could revive a moribund opposition in Congo, where President Joseph Kabila, still in power after his mandate ran out in Dec 2016, looks likely to seek a third term on a legal technicality or by changing the constitution.

Congo government spokesman Lambert Mende said on Friday that Bemba had the right to return home if released.

Bemba ran against Kabila in 2006 elections that went to a run-off between them before Kabila won.

According to a nationwide public opinion survey by New York University’s Congo Research Group in March, despite being absent for a decade Bemba would finish third in a hypothetical presidential race behind two other opposition leaders

ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda called the appeal decision “regrettable and troubling”. She noted that judges did not deny Bemba’s troops had committed atrocities “which resulted in great suffering in the Central African Republic.”

“The carnage and suffering caused by those crimes are very real and they are recognized,” she told journalists.

Fiona McKay of the Open Society Justice Initiative said the decision was a “major blow” to Bensouda’s office “given the vast resources that have been devoted to this case, which has lasted for more than 10 years.”

“This was the first ICC case with a major focus on the use of rape as a weapon of war”, she said.

Bemba’s case had been seen as cementing the precedent that officials may be held liable for the actions of troops under their command.

He was not released immediately on Friday because he has also been convicted of witness tampering, and an appeals judgment in that case is still pending. The court called a status conference in his case for June 12, which Bemba’s lawyer called “unacceptable” given that the maximum sentence on that charge is five years and Bemba has already been jailed for 10.

He said Bemba would probably go to Belgium to meet with his family there before returning to Congo after he is released.

Bemba, the son of a businessman, became rich during years of close association with former Congolese leader Mobutu Sese Seko. He entered government with Kabila in 2003 as part of a power-sharing deal that ended years of civil war.

Karine Bonneau of the International Federation for Human Rights said the decision was devastating for an estimated 5,000 victims of troops under Bemba who were awaiting the ruling.

The message “to warlords seems to be: when you’re not at the scene, let your troops commit the worst crimes and worst abominations, then say you had nothing to do with it, and we won’t condemn you.”</s>FILE PHOTO: Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo is seen in a court room of the ICC to hear the delivery of the judgment on charges including corruptly influencing witnesses by giving them money and instructions to provide false testimony and false evidence Thomson Reuters KINSHASA (Reuters) - Congolese politician and former warlord Jean Pierre Bemba has the right to return home once the International Criminal Court releases him, Congo government spokesman Lambert Mende said on Friday.

The global court on Friday overturned Bemba's war crimes conviction and 18-year prison sentence for alleged atrocities carried out by troops under his control in neighboring Central African Republic in 2002-2003, meaning he could be released in a matter of days.

"There's not even any question over it," Mende told Reuters by telephone. "Do you know of any other country where a Congolese citizen is supposed to live? All Congolese are free to live in DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo)"</s>In a blow to prosecutors at the International Criminal Court and to victims of rape and murder in a conflict-ravaged African nation, appeals judges on Friday overturned the convictions of former Congolese Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba for atrocities committed by his forces in Central African Republic.

The reversal delivered a serious setback to ICC prosecutors by scrapping all the convictions in the court’s first trial to focus largely on sexual violence and on command responsibility — the legal principle that a commanding officer can be held responsible for crimes committed by his or her troops or for failing to prevent or punish the crimes.

“We find it regrettable and troubling,” Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said. “And I can only regret that this ‘significant and unexplained departure’ from the court’s previous jurisprudence, as the dissenting judges described it, has taken place in the most serious case of sexual and gender-based violence that has been decided upon by this court to date.”

The ruling could have implications for possible future convictions of commanding officers in other conflicts.

Bemba’s lawyer, Peter Haynes, welcomed the decision. “It’s not some acquittal on a technicality,” he said. “They went to the very heart of a commander’s culpability, namely his responsibility to ensure that when put in the knowledge of crimes he takes steps to investigate them and punish them.”

Bemba was the most senior suspect convicted by the global court and his 18-year sentence was the highest handed down in the court’s history.

Bemba, wearing a suit and tie, showed little emotion as Presiding Judge Christine Van den Wyngaert reversed his convictions. Bemba’s supporters in the packed public gallery were not so reserved; they cheered, whistled and hugged one another for so long that Van den Wyngaert threatened to halt proceedings if order was not restored.

The appeals chamber, in a 3-2 majority ruling, said the trial chamber “erred in its evaluation of Mr. Bemba’s motivation and the measures that he could have taken in light of the limitations he faced in investigating and prosecuting crimes as a remote commander sending troops to a foreign country.”

The appeals chamber also said Bemba was wrongly convicted for crimes that were not even included in the charges against him.

The two judges who disagreed wrote a dissenting opinion in which they said the acquittals were based on “an incorrect standard of appellate review,” the court said.

Bemba was found guilty in 2016 as a military commander of two counts of crimes against humanity and three counts of war crimes for a campaign of murder, rape and pillaging by his troops, known as the Movement for the Liberation of Congo, in 2002 and 2003.

He denied responsibility for the crimes. He was sentenced in 2016 to 18 years in prison.

Bemba has been in custody at the ICC for nearly a decade after authorities in Belgium arrested him there in 2008 and sent him to The Hague.

Van den Wyngaert said Bemba would not immediately be released because a separate panel of ICC judges is still considering what sentence he should be given in a conviction for interfering with witnesses in his trial. She urged that trial panel to quickly decide whether he should be set free.

The court scheduled a hearing for Tuesday to discuss the issue.

Haynes, the lawyer, was angry that Bemba was not released immediately.

“I think that is unacceptable. It is immoral and it may even be illegal,” he told reporters.

Bemba, a former Congolese senator and vice president, was the commander of the Movement for the Liberation of Congo when he was asked in 2002 and 2003 to send troops by President Ange-Felix Patasse in neighboring Central African Republic, or CAR.

At the time of his original conviction, judges said that women, girls and men were targeted by Bemba’s forces, often with multiple soldiers raping women and girls in front of family members. In one incident, a man’s wife was gang-raped and when he protested he, too, was raped at gunpoint.

Friday’s ruling does not mean those crimes did not take place, but that Bemba cannot be held criminally responsible for them.

Solomon Sacco, head of Amnesty International’s international justice team, said “the decision will be felt as a huge blow for the many victims of the ‘war against women’ waged in the Central African Republic through a horrifying campaign of rape and sexual violence.”

“5,229 survivors of Bemba’s atrocities participated in the ICC proceedings — for these brave individuals, as well as thousands of other victims in CAR, the pursuit of truth, justice and reparations will continue,” he said.

Sacco said the ICC prosecutor’s office and judicial authorities in CAR “must learn from this decision and redouble their efforts to investigate and prosecute alleged perpetrators of crimes under international law.”

Karine Bonneau of the International Federation for Human Rights slammed Friday’s decision.

“Twenty years after its creation, has the ICC just scuttled itself?” she said in a statement. “Delivering this judgment, it seems to say to the warlords: ‘As long as you are not on the scene, let your troops commit the worst crimes and the worst abominations, say that you have nothing to do with that and we will not condemn you.'”

It remains to be seen what Bemba will do once he is released. Haynes said he likely would join his family in Belgium.

Prominent Congolese opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi, speaking at an Atlantic Council event last month in Washington, said Bemba’s Movement for the Liberation of Congo was part of a new political alliance against President Joseph Kabila.

Frustration is rising in Congo against Kabila as the presidential election has been delayed since late 2016.

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Jean-Pierre Bemba is acquitted of war crimes by the International Criminal Court appeals chamber.