Congolese warlord Bosco Ntaganda, sentenced to 30 years in prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity, has been transferred from The Hague to Belgium, the International Criminal Court (ICC) said on Wednesday.
Ntaganda, 49, nicknamed 'Terminator,' was convicted in 2019 of atrocities committed in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the early 2000s.
The ICC said in a statement that he had been transferred and had arrived in Belgium to serve his prison sentence in Leuze-en-Hainaut prison.
“The ICC relies on the support of states for the enforcement of its sentences and greatly appreciates the voluntary cooperation of the Belgian government in this case,” ICC Registrar Peter Lewis was quoted as saying in the statement.
The DRC is a former Belgian colony. Bosco Ntaganda, born in neighbouring Rwanda - also a former Belgian colony - was convicted of five counts of crimes against humanity and 13 counts of war crimes, including murder, sexual slavery, rape and the use of child soldiers.
He is the first person to be convicted of sexual slavery by the ICC, which last year upheld his 30-year sentence on appeal. This was the longest sentence ever handed down by the court.
The judges had described Bosco Ntaganda’s role in the crimes committed by his troops in 2002 and 2003 in Ituri, in the northeast of the DRC, as crucial.
According to NGOs, more than 60,000 people have died since violence began in 1999 in the unstable, mineral-rich region.
A general in the DRC army from 2007 to 2012, Ntaganda later became a founding member of the M23 rebel group, which was finally defeated by DRC government forces in 2013.
