THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A former authorities minister from the Central African Republic denied involvement in crimes towards humanity and conflict crimes for his alleged position in a lethal battle within the impoverished nation when he appeared at a pretrial listening to on the International Criminal Court Tuesday.

Prosecutors accuse Maxime Jeoffroy Eli Mokom Gawaka of coordinating operations of the anti-Balaka, a primarily Christian group which fought towards the predominantly Muslim Seleka insurgent group. The preventing left hundreds lifeless and displaced a whole lot of hundreds in 2013 and 2014.

Mokom faces costs together with homicide, extermination, deportation, torture, persecution, enforced disappearance and different inhumane acts. The listening to that began Tuesday shouldn't be a trial, however will set up if proof is powerful sufficient to benefit placing him on trial. He was not required to enter a plea.

“I absolutely deny having participated in any plans that involved crimes that have been charged,” Mokom informed judges within the ICC courtroom in The Hague.

He stated he returned to Central African Republic from Congo in February 2014 and “dedicated my return to the search for peace, rather than to engage in war.”

His protection lawyer, Philippe Larochelle, earlier informed the listening to that prosecutors already had uncovered proof that might exonerate Mokom, even earlier than his arrest early final yr in Chad. He informed judges the proof “undermines every aspect of the prosecutor’s theory.”

Mokom is the fourth suspect from the long-running battle within the mineral-rich however impoverished nation to seem earlier than judges on the world court docket.

Violence has plagued Central African Republic since 2013, when Seleka rebels compelled then-President Francois Bozize from workplace. Militias often known as anti-Balaka later fought again, additionally concentrating on civilians and sending a lot of the Muslim residents of the capital, Bangui, fleeing in worry.

The authorities and 14 insurgent teams signed a peace deal in February 2019, however violence once more erupted after the constitutional court docket rejected Bozize’s candidacy to run for president in 2020.

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