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Former Congo VP Bemba, lawyer bribed witnesses, Hague court told
Jean-Pierre Bemba, a former vice president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, speaks at the opening of his trial in The Hague, November 22, 2010. PHOTO BY REUTERS/Michael Kooren
By Yoruk Bahceli
29/09/2015
THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court accused former Congo vice-president Jean-Pierre Bemba, his former lawyer and three other allies on Tuesday of corrupting witnesses in an attempt to secure his acquittal.
Bemba, already on trial at court in The Hague for crimes against humanity, and his ex-trial lawyer Aime Kilolo Musamba are charged with coaching witnesses and paying them to testify in his favour between 2011 and 2013.
"Mr. Bemba directed a plan to see his acquittal through corrupted means," prosecutor Fatou Bensouda told the court, adding that witness testimony, phone and money transfer records and logs from the court's jail would prove her case.
Some of the court's highest-profile cases have collapsed due to witness tampering. Last year, prosecutors abandoned their case against Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, accused of fomenting pre-election violence, because of what they said was large-scale intimidation and bribing of witnesses.
Jean-Jacques Mangenda Kabongo, another member of Bemba's legal team; Fidele Babala Wandu, a politician and close associate of Bemba; and Narcisse Arido, a witness in Bemba's main trial, face similar charges. All five are citizens of Democratic Republic of Congo.
Bemba and his four co-accused deny the charges, saying that any payments were intended to cover witnesses' expenses and not to influence their testimony.
"This is a case about shielding the integrity of the court’s proceedings," Bensouda said. Seated in court, Bemba followed the session intensely, nodding along and tapping his finger as she read out her statement.
Bemba has been on trial in The Hague since 2008, accused of orchestrating atrocities against civilians during a 2002 intervention by his Movement for the Liberation of Congo militia in the neighbouring Central African Republic.
In written filings, prosecutors cited witness accounts in which Kilolo discussed giving cash sums in the order of 50 euros to witnesses and hiding the matter from Bemba's other lawyers.
"This isn't corruption," he told one witness, according to prosecutors. "Just a present from Mr. Bemba because you agreed to testify in his favour."
Prosecutors said that on another occasion Kilolo told a colleague, "Our story, our white (colleagues) mustn't hear about this," in apparent reference to Peter Haynes, Bemba's British co-counsel before the ICC.
The five defendants could face sentences of up to five years in prison and an unlimited fine if convicted.
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