HASSAN Bouba, Central African Republic’s Minister of Livestock and Animal Health (pictured), has been unexpectedly released from detention where he was being held on war crimes and crimes against humanity charges.
Arrested on November 19, Bouba was to face the country’s Special Criminal Court (SCC) on November 26 but was mysteriously released from detention in defiance of the court’s orders and escorted home by national gendarmes.
A press release by the SCC confirmed that Bouba was taken from the Camp de Roux prison where he was detained by the gendarmes.
The mysterious action has raised concern among human rights activists in the country who were expecting Bouba, a leader of the Union for Peace in the Central African Republic (Unité pour la Paix en Centrafrique, UPC), a rebel group that has been accused of atrocities, to face trial.
‘The UPC is responsible for many serious crimes in the Central African Republic since 2014,’ said Lewis Mudge, Central Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
‘Bouba’s arrest sends a strong message that even the most powerful can find themselves subject to the reach of the law and gives hope to the many victims of UPC crimes that they may one day see justice.’
He added: ‘The Special Criminal Court is playing a vital role in helping to puncture pervasive impunity in the Central African Republic
‘When Bouba was promoted to minister many felt it could be yet another example of how it can pay to commit serious crimes in the Central African Republic.’
Mudge said then that Bouba’s arrest was a ‘warning to other suspects in positions of power that the reign of impunity in the country may be running short’.
But the unexpected release of Bouba a week after he was arrested has wrong-footed human rights groups that are now calling on the CAR government to coordinate with UN peacekeepers to ensure that Bouba is returned to custody.
‘If the Central African Republic wants to address impunity for atrocities, the government needs to support the Special Criminal Court and Bouba’s immediate re-arrest,’ said Elise Keppler, associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch.
‘Allowing Bouba to be released in defiance of the Special Criminal Court’s orders undermines efforts to advance justice and increases the possibility that he could flee. ‘International partners…should insist the court’s orders are followed and that Bouba is taken back into custody as soon as possible, to face due process.’
The UPC has been accused of committing serious abuses in the Ouaka province in 2014, before it split from the rebel Seleka faction.
From 2014 to 2017, Human Rights Watch documented at least 246 civilians killed, dozens of cases of rape and sexual slavery, and 2,046 homes burned by the UPC in the Ouaka province.
Bouba was expelled from the rebel group in January, after a surge in violence in the country when a new rebellion, of which the UPC was a member, began in December 2020.
He was arrested at his office on November 19.
The SCC issued a press release on November 22, saying that Bouba had been arrested, but it did not include any details on the crimes against humanity and war crimes that were alleged.
The SCC is a court established to help limit widespread impunity for serious crimes in CAR.
It is staffed by both international and national judges and prosecutors, and benefits from international assistance.
It has the authority to try grave crimes committed during the country’s armed conflicts since 2003.
Internationally accepted standards for fair trials, including the presumption of innocence and the requirement that guilt be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, are enshrined in the court’s rules of procedure and evidence.
The law to establish the court was adopted in 2015, but the court did not officially begin operations until 2018.
The SCC was established after national consultations in 2015, known as the Bangui Forum, had prioritised justice, and stated that ‘no amnesty’ would be tolerated for those responsible for and acting as accomplices in international crimes.
The court, though, is facing funding problems and needs further support to continue to advance its important work, according to Human Rights Watch.
Human rights organisations wrote to members of the US Congress on November 18 calling for a renewal of the US government’s $3 million contribution to the court this year.
