Congolese warlord Katanga on trial again after completing ICC sentence

Germain Katanga sits in the military court in Kinshasa, on February 3, 2016. By Papy Mulongo (AFP)

Kinshasa (AFP) - Notorious Congolese warlord Germain Katanga was back in the dock Wednesday for crimes against humanity after completing a first 12-year sentence handed down by the International Criminal Court.

Smiling and relaxed, the former general nicknamed Simba the lion due to his alleged ferocity, entered the military court in uniform, warmly greeting senior officers before the trial began.

He and five others are accused of "war crimes, crimes against humanity and participating in an insurrectional movement" in Ituri near the Ugandan border, where some 60,000 people died in fighting between 1999 and 2007.

Katanga's defence lawyers called on the court to drop the charges during the three-hour hearing and denounced his "arbitrary and illegal detention".

Rights groups Human Rights Watch said he not been given sufficient time to prepare his case.

His prior ICC sentence for complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity was reduced in November by the court based in The Hague, for good behaviour and after he voiced regret.

Katanga was only the second person to be sentenced by the tribunal since it began work in 2003 as the world's first permanent court to try war crimes and crimes against humanity.

He was brought back from the Dutch city to Kinshasa late last year to complete his term and had been scheduled to walk free on January 18. But Democratic Republic of Congo authorities announced they would keep him behind bars to prosecute for "other cases".

The 37-year-old was convicted by the ICC over a 2003 attack on the village of Bogoro that saw 200 people shot and hacked to death. He was acquitted of sexual slavery and using child soldiers.

- From warlord to general -

Congolese authorities have claimed that in Ituri he played a role in the killing of nine UN peacekeepers in the violence-torn northeastern region in 2005.

But there was no specific mention of that incident during Wednesday's hearing. The next court hearing will take place on February 19.

Katanga headed the Patriotic Resistance Forces in Ituri (FRPI), one of the many largely ethnic-based militias that fought for control of the gold-rich region.

He became a general in the DR Congo army in 2004 in exchange for disbanding the militia.

He was arrested however in 2005 and handed over to the ICC in 2007.

DR Congo itself, a country of more than 67 million people that is Africa's second largest, was torn by two wars between 1996 and 2003 estimated to have cost at least two to three million lives.

Its eastern provinces remain ravaged by conflicts between ethnic groups and local warlords over control of land and mineral resources.

Many atrocities such as rape, killing and enslavement have been committed, most of them unpunished until 2014 when the authorities began to take measures to end impunity.