The International Criminal Court ruled Monday that ex-Congolese vice president and militia leader Jean-Pierre Bemba is not entitled to damages after his successful appeal of a war crimes conviction.
Bemba’s lawyers failed to convince the court that their client must be compensated for the nearly $75 million they claimed he lost because of his imprisonment, including legal fees and what they say was the court’s mismanagement of his seized assets.
The judges acknowledged Monday that the 10 years Bemba spent in jail awaiting trial is a “significant amount of time to spend in custody, likely to result in personal suffering.”
Bemba was an opposition politician and one of four vice presidents in the Democratic Republic of Congo from 2003 to 2006.
The ICC convicted Bemba in 2016 and sentenced him to 18 years in prison.
