The International Criminal Court has found Congolese former militia leader Germain Katanga liable to $1 million in damages to his victims.
This is the first time the court has ordered a convict to pay damages to individual victims.
Judges said that Katanga, convicted of crimes against humanity and war crimes in 2014, should pay $250 to each of 297 victims individually.
Noting that Katanga is in prison and unlikely to pay, Judges acknowledged that the ruling is partly “symbolic” and asked the court’s Trust Fund for Victims to consider paying the damages on his behalf.
The presiding judge said the award was “not intended to compensate for the entirety of the harm but that he hoped the fund, which is independent, would provide some kind of “meaningful relief to the victims for the harm they have suffered”.
Katanga was convicted for crimes for his role in a 2003 attack on a village in the Ituri district of the Democratic Republic of Congo and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
