Long pursued by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity and war crimes allegedly committed in the Central African Republic in 2013 and 2014, Maxime Mokom benefited from a dismissal of the charges. But since then, the former head of operations in the anti-balakas, who cannot return to Africa for security reasons, has complained of having neither papers nor means. To the point that his lawyers launched an appeal for donations on the internet.
2 mins
With our correspondent in The Hague, Stephanie Maupas
It is a recurring puzzle of international justice that the Mokom affair will not have resolved. Arrested in 2022 in Chad, Maxime Mokom spent 19 months in the prison of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Until last October when, in a twist of events, the ICC prosecutor decided to withdraw the charges against him. The detainee is indeed free, but he is also without papers, without money, and thousands of kilometers from home.
His lawyers therefore opened an internet page a few days ago, launching an appeal for donations. They also asked the Court for reparations of some three million euros for his months of detention away from his wife and six children.
The Blé Goudé and Gbagbo cases
In his exile in northern Europe, the location of which he wishes to keep confidential for security reasons, Maxime Mokom, contacted by telephone, says he lacks everything and criticizes the ICC for having left him without means. The Court cannot issue a simple return ticket to the ex-inmate. He fears returning to the Central African Republic where he was sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia just one month before his release.
The matter is therefore not simple. Like before him that of Charles Blé Goudé who had to reside for some time in The Hague before obtaining the green light to return to Côte d’Ivoire, or ex-president Laurent Gbagbo who had spent some time in Brussels before join Abidjan.