Bangui (Central African Republic) (AFP) - The son of the Central African Republic's ousted leader Francois Bozize was arrested on Friday in the capital Bangui, a minister said, as the country struggles to restore security after years of sectarian violence.
Jean-Francis Bozize, who was defence minister in his father's cabinet, "handed himself in voluntarily" to the UN peacekeeping mission deployed in the country, Justice Minister Flavien Mbata said in a statement.
Acting on an arrest warrant issued for Bozize in May 2014, the mission known as MINUSCA "arrested him and handed him over to the Central African authorities", the statement said.
The UN mission has a mandate to detain suspects of grave human rights and humanitarian law violations, and hand them over to the national authorities.
The ex-president's son will be brought before a judge to "answer to the charges against him", it added.
A source close to MINUSCA confirmed the details of the arrest. There was no immediate information on the charges Bozize faces.
Earlier, the gendarmerie security force backed by a police mission of MINUSCA said it had arrested him.
"Jean-Francis Bozize was part of former president Bozize's inner circle, (and) family members are under investigation by the Central African Republic's judiciary," a source in the prosecutor's office said.
Ex-president Bozize, who has lived in exile since being ousted, faces an arrest warrant for murder, torture and inciting genocide and hate.
Jean-Francis Bozize, who is in his 40s, had returned from Nairobi, where he had been living since 2013, to Bangui in recent days.
Like other members of the family and high-ranking officials from the old regime, the former defence minister's assets had been frozen.
"He was trying to return to the country where he still has some property," a relative of Bozize said on condition of anonymity.
Bozize's son fled the Central African Republic on March 24, 2013, when the mainly Muslim Seleka rebellion overran Bangui.
The coup plunged the country into a brutal sectarian war that left thousands dead after the mainly Christian anti-Balaka militia hit back against the Seleka movement.
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