Principally, The Office of the Prosecutor v Jean Pierre Bemba Gombo concerned allegations of war crimes committed in the Central African Republic against Mr. Jean Pierre Bemba, the former Commander of Mouvement de liberation du Congo armed forces. The Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court convicted Mr. Bemba of all charges leveled against him. On appeal, the Appeals Chamber freed Mr. Bemba on the grounds of weak evidence submitted by the Office of the Prosecutor. This article uses Bemba’s case at the Appeals Chamber to assess the investigation and collection of evidence by the Office of the Prosecutor. The article argues that weak evidence noted by the Appeal’s chamber resulted from a weak investigation by the Office of the Prosecutor. The article further discusses that the Office of the Prosecutor failed to conduct an investigation that could cover all relevant facts and evidence. The article also argues that in Bemba’s case, the Office of the Prosecutor failed to receive necessary cooperation from the Central African Republic that would have strengthened the investigation. The article shows that in cases where the Office of the Prosecutor managed to obtain the required cooperation from States, it conducted a thorough investigation and collected strong evidence that enabled successful prosecution before the International Criminal Court. Finally, the article suggests the necessary measures that the Office of the Prosecutor needs to take into account for effective investigation and collection of evidence. In this regard, the article also recommends how States can accord the Office of the Prosecutor all the required cooperation.
| Published in | International Journal of Law and Society (Volume 9, Issue 1) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.ijls.20260901.12 |
| Page(s) | 14-25 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2026. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Prosecution of Cases, International Criminal Court, Investigation and Collection of Evidence, The Office of the Prosecutor
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Prosecutor v Jean Pierre Bemba Gombo, ICC-01/05-01/08, Case Information Sheet, p. 1,
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APA Style
Amin, S. (2026). Rethinking the Office of the Prosecutor v Jean Pierre Bemba: A Case Note. International Journal of Law and Society, 9(1), 14-25. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijls.20260901.12
ACS Style
Amin, S. Rethinking the Office of the Prosecutor v Jean Pierre Bemba: A Case Note. Int. J. Law Soc. 2026, 9(1), 14-25. doi: 10.11648/j.ijls.20260901.12
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Download@article{10.11648/j.ijls.20260901.12,
author = {Sem Amin},
title = {Rethinking the Office of the Prosecutor v Jean Pierre Bemba: A Case Note},
journal = {International Journal of Law and Society},
volume = {9},
number = {1},
pages = {14-25},
doi = {10.11648/j.ijls.20260901.12},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijls.20260901.12},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijls.20260901.12},
abstract = {Principally, The Office of the Prosecutor v Jean Pierre Bemba Gombo concerned allegations of war crimes committed in the Central African Republic against Mr. Jean Pierre Bemba, the former Commander of Mouvement de liberation du Congo armed forces. The Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court convicted Mr. Bemba of all charges leveled against him. On appeal, the Appeals Chamber freed Mr. Bemba on the grounds of weak evidence submitted by the Office of the Prosecutor. This article uses Bemba’s case at the Appeals Chamber to assess the investigation and collection of evidence by the Office of the Prosecutor. The article argues that weak evidence noted by the Appeal’s chamber resulted from a weak investigation by the Office of the Prosecutor. The article further discusses that the Office of the Prosecutor failed to conduct an investigation that could cover all relevant facts and evidence. The article also argues that in Bemba’s case, the Office of the Prosecutor failed to receive necessary cooperation from the Central African Republic that would have strengthened the investigation. The article shows that in cases where the Office of the Prosecutor managed to obtain the required cooperation from States, it conducted a thorough investigation and collected strong evidence that enabled successful prosecution before the International Criminal Court. Finally, the article suggests the necessary measures that the Office of the Prosecutor needs to take into account for effective investigation and collection of evidence. In this regard, the article also recommends how States can accord the Office of the Prosecutor all the required cooperation.},
year = {2026}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Rethinking the Office of the Prosecutor v Jean Pierre Bemba: A Case Note AU - Sem Amin Y1 - 2026/01/19 PY - 2026 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijls.20260901.12 DO - 10.11648/j.ijls.20260901.12 T2 - International Journal of Law and Society JF - International Journal of Law and Society JO - International Journal of Law and Society SP - 14 EP - 25 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2640-1908 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijls.20260901.12 AB - Principally, The Office of the Prosecutor v Jean Pierre Bemba Gombo concerned allegations of war crimes committed in the Central African Republic against Mr. Jean Pierre Bemba, the former Commander of Mouvement de liberation du Congo armed forces. The Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court convicted Mr. Bemba of all charges leveled against him. On appeal, the Appeals Chamber freed Mr. Bemba on the grounds of weak evidence submitted by the Office of the Prosecutor. This article uses Bemba’s case at the Appeals Chamber to assess the investigation and collection of evidence by the Office of the Prosecutor. The article argues that weak evidence noted by the Appeal’s chamber resulted from a weak investigation by the Office of the Prosecutor. The article further discusses that the Office of the Prosecutor failed to conduct an investigation that could cover all relevant facts and evidence. The article also argues that in Bemba’s case, the Office of the Prosecutor failed to receive necessary cooperation from the Central African Republic that would have strengthened the investigation. The article shows that in cases where the Office of the Prosecutor managed to obtain the required cooperation from States, it conducted a thorough investigation and collected strong evidence that enabled successful prosecution before the International Criminal Court. Finally, the article suggests the necessary measures that the Office of the Prosecutor needs to take into account for effective investigation and collection of evidence. In this regard, the article also recommends how States can accord the Office of the Prosecutor all the required cooperation. VL - 9 IS - 1 ER -
Public Law Department, Mzumbe University, Morogoro, Tanzania
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