Acquitted by the ICC, but still not free
Since he was acquitted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in December 2012, the fate of the Congolese ex-militia leader Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui remains unsettled. Last week he appeared in a Dutch district court to appeal against a decision to deny him asylum in The Netherlands, showing how the ICC, like its ad hoc predecessors, has not prepared for possible acquittals. (.....) Ngudjolo was tried at the ICC for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during an attack in February 2003 on the village of Bogoro, in Ituri in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). After a three-year long trial, he was acquitted on 18 December 2012. 'We were ready to go to the ICC detention centre to take him to a hotel, when suddenly the Dutch authorities said they would take him to another hotel near Schiphol airport', recalls his Congolese defence counsel Jean-Pierre Kilenda. On 21 December 2012 the Dutch police took Ngudjolo straight to the airport. 'When it became clear ...
