The alleged crimes committed by members of Francois Bozize's security forces include murder, enforced disappearance, torture and rape.
A UN-backed court in the the Central African Republic will on Tuesday begin the trial in absentia of former president Francois Bozize, over crimes against humanity committed between 2009 and 2013.
The alleged crimes committed by members of Bozize's security forces include murder, enforced disappearance, torture and rape.
Bozize, 79, who seized power in a 2003 coup before being overthrown 10 years later by rebels, has been living in exile in Guinea-Bissau since March 2023.
But three of his former senior military officers, Eugene Barret Ngaikosset, Vianney Semndiro and Firmin Junior Danboy, are all in pre-trial detention in the Central African Republic.
Crimes against humanity
The case will be heard by the Special Criminal Court (SCC), a hybrid jurisdiction located in the capital Bangui with Central African and foreign judges.
In February 2024, the SCC issued an international arrest warrant for the former president as part of an investigation into possible crimes against humanity committed by Bozize’s Presidential Guard in a civilian prison and a military training centre in the central town of Bossembele.
The judges concluded that there was "serious and consistent evidence against (Bozize), likely to incur his criminal liability, in his capacity as hierarchical superior and military leader".
The SCC is in charge of investigating war crimes committed since 2003 in the Central African Republic, which has endured civil wars and authoritarian regimes since independence from France in 1960.
Civil war
Bozize's 2013 overthrow by a coalition of mostly rebels, the Seleka, triggered civil war in the Central African Republic.
Bozize set-up militias, known as anti-Balakas, to regain power.
Thousands of civilians were killed and both sides have been accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity by the United Nations.
At the end of 2020 Bozize took over a new rebel alliance, the Coalition of Patriots for Change, which threatened the power of President Faustin-Archange Touadera before being pushed back by the government.
Bozize then went into exile, first in neighbouring Chad and later in Guinea-Bissau.
Bozize was sentenced in absentia in September 2022 to forced labour for life for conspiracy, rebellion and murder.
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