July 25 – Former president of the Central African Republic’s FA, Patrice-Edouard Ngaissona, has been convicted in the International Criminal Court in The Hague of war crimes, and sentenced to 12 years imprisonment.
In November 2019, French police handed Ngaissona over to the International Criminal Court having arrested him in France a year earlier on an ICC warrant.
Ngaïssona was a National General Coordinator of the christian Anti-Balaka armed group. He was sentenced alongside Alfred Yekatom, a former Anti-Balaka zone commander.
Ngaissona had been president of the Central African Republic’s FA for more than a decade and was also a member of Confederation of African Football’s executive committee. In the period he was allegedly committing war crimes, he was a member of the FIFA panel organising the Club World Cup, having been appointed in 2017 to FIFA’s associations committee.
FIFA eventually banned him for six years and eight months and fined him CHF500,000.
A court statement said: “The judges found Messrs. Yekatom and Ngaïssona guilty beyond reasonable doubt of multiple acts constituting war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Anti-Balaka during its widespread attack against the Muslim civilian population in the western Central African Republic (“CAR”) between December 2013 and December 2014.”
The convictions covered multiple charges, including murder, attacks against a civilian population, forcible transfer, torture and other inhumane acts, and persecution.
“The crimes attributed to the two are serious in all aspects, causing horrific and indelible consequences for the civilian population. This conviction is a strong message from the ICC that those responsible for atrocity crimes under the Rome Statute will be brought to justice, and held to account. From the battlefield to the inner circles of power, there can be no impunity for crimes violating the most fundamental tenet of international humanitarian law – the protection of civilians,” said Deputy Prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang.
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