Congolese militia leader urges ICC to free him from jail

The Hague (AFP) - A former militia leader in the Democratic Republic of Congo, dubbed "Simba" the lion due to his ferocity, on Tuesday urged international justices to free him before the end of his 12-year jail term.

Germain Katanga was sentenced to 12 years in prison last year by the International Criminal Court for his role in a brutal ethnic attack on a northeastern Congolese village in 2003.

But after spending some eight years in jail, Katanga on Tuesday offered his apologies to his victims insisting he had turned his back on the militias.

"I have heard their cries of pain and suffering with a feeling of regret and respect," Katanga told the judges, adding he had too had lost his father and brother.

The "immense pain" of his victims was something which "profoundly affected me," Katanga said, voicing "the sincerity of my regrets and the sadness that I feel."

"I sincerely hope that my message will eventually reach them."

In May 2014, The Hague-based court found him guilty of complicity in crimes against humanity and war crimes over the February 2003 attack on the village of Bogoro, including murder and pillage.

Katanga, 37, was accused of supplying weapons to his militia in the attack in which some 200 people were shot and hacked to death with machetes.

Arrested in 2005 in the Congo, Katanga was transferred to The Hague in October 2007.

Under ICC rules, time served in custody before sentencing is taken into account. And a defendant has the right to demand early release after serving a total of two-thirds of his time.

A former member of the armed fighters of the Patriotic Resistance Forces in Ituri (FRPI), Katanga said Tuesday he no longer has "any contact with the militias".

He wants now to live with his six children in his country and be a farmer, as well as enrol in university. He also said he was prepared to work with the UN special mission in the country and the government to rein in "residual groups of militias".

Katanga's sentence was only the court's second since it opened its doors in 2003.

The prosecution said it was not opposed to Katanga's request, but prosecutor Helen Brady said he had failed to make a single gesture to compensate his victims. The court adjourned Tuesday to consider his request.

Another Congolese warlord and one-time adversary of Katanga, Thomas Lubanga, was jailed for 14 years in July 2012 for recruiting and enlisting child soldiers.

Lubanga's request for early release was turned down last month as "unjustified" by ICC judges.

The Ituri region where the Bogoro massacre occurred has been riven by violence since 1999, when clashes broke out that killed at least 60,000 people, according to rights groups.