The International Criminal Court (ICC) today found a former rebel commander of the Central African Republic guilty of crimes against humanity committed in 2013, when the African country plunged into a civil war.
© Lusa
23/09/2026
by
Lusa
“ Aafter analyzing the evidence presented in the trial, the judges concluded that Mahamat Said was guilty, without any reasonable doubt, of prison crimes or other serious forms of deprivation of physical freedom, torture, persecution and other inhuman acts, which constitute crimes against humanity,” the court declared.
According to the ICC, a 56-year-old Mahamat Said Abdel Kani supervised the daily operations of a detention center, which belonged to a police unit called “Central Office of Repression du Banditisme (OCRB)”.
During the trial, some witnesses described overcrowded cells, with walls marked by “bullet holes and blood,” and reported “having been flogged,” President Miatta Maria Samba said.
Other witnesses reported that they were kept confined in a windowless dresser, located under the floor of Said's office.
The former commander was still acquitted of three counts of war crimes.
Said pleaded not guilty to all charges when the trial began in 2021.
The sentence, which can reach life imprisonment, will be set at a later date.
The charges stemmed from confrontations over a decade ago between the rebels of the Séléka — a Muslim majority group that had seized the power of then President François Bozizé — and a Christian majority militia known as anti-Balaka.
In 2018, the United Nations (UN) accused the Séléka and the anti-balakas of many war crimes and crimes against humanity.