ICC rules on appeal by Congolese 'Terminator' warlord

THE HAGUE: The International Criminal Court will decide Tuesday on an appeal by a Congolese warlord dubbed the "Terminator", who received the tribunal's longest-ever war crimes sentence.

Rebel leader Bosco Ntaganda was convicted by the Hague-based ICC in 2019 over a reign of terror in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the early 2000s, and jailed for 30 years.

The Rwandan-born 47-year-old was found guilty of 18 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, sexual slavery, rape and using child soldiers.

Ntaganda was the first person to be convicted of sexual slavery by the court. Many of the other charges related to massacres of villagers in the mineral rich Ituri region of the DRC.

ICC appeals judges will hand down their decision on his appeal against his conviction and sentence at 1300 GMT.

The court earlier this month awarded Ntaganda's victims $30 million (25 million euros) in reparations, provided he was convicted on appeal.

The court asked the court's trust fund for victims to arrange for the reparations to be made, or to find further funds as necessary, as Ntaganda was unable to pay.

Ntaganda's lawyers said when they announced his intention to appeal that the Rwandan-born 46-year-old was "at peace with himself" and that he "remains fine and strong".

They said the ICC's decision to convict him "contains many errors of law and fact".

Prosecutors portrayed him as the ruthless leader of ethnic Tutsi revolts amid the civil wars that wracked the DRC after the 1994 genocide of Tutsis in neighbouring Rwanda.