The Special Criminal Court (CPS) officially communicated regarding the arrest of Hassan Ali Bouba, the Minister of Livestock and former political coordinator of the UPC rebellion. The CPS announced that he was charged on Friday, November 19, in Bangui, with war crimes and crimes against humanity after being questioned by the court’s judges. He is currently detained at Camp de Roux.
Seventy-two hours after Hassan Ali Bouba’s arrest, the Special Criminal Court (CPS) made his arrest official on Monday, November 22. Bouba, the Central African Minister of Livestock and former number two of the rebel group Union for Peace in the Central African Republic (UPC), was placed in pretrial detention by the judges of the CPS’s first investigative chamber. This decision followed his initial hearing, which took place in the presence of his lawyer. A contradictory debate, meaning a preliminary trial scheduled for November 26, will determine whether his pretrial detention will be extended.
In the CPS’s press release published on Monday, November 22, they announced that this former rebel leader is charged with “war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
Hassan Ali Bouba is the first government member to be arrested in connection with the armed violence that has plagued the Central African Republic for nearly a decade. His name has been linked to several atrocities attributed to the armed group Union for Peace in the Central African Republic (UPC).
As part of investigations into war crimes and crimes against humanity related to the militaro-political crisis in the Central African Republic, about twenty individuals suspected of violence are already under the CPS’s jurisdiction.
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