Ex-presidential guards get 5 years in prison for gang rape

Central African Republic's permanent military tribunal has sentenced five former presidential guards to five years’ imprisonment for gang-raping a woman on 28 October 2003 in the capital, Bangui, state-owned Radio Centrafrique reported on Saturday. CAR leader Francois Bozize, who is also the defence minister, sacked the five guards and two of their accomplices from the army soon after the rape incident was reported. The rape took place at a barracks of the presidential intelligence unit known as the Section d’Enquete, de Recherche et de Documentation. The unit was later disbanded. The prosecutor had asked for 10 years' imprisonment for each of the accused. Reports of the gang-rape followed a series of other human right violations, including killings allegedly committed by soldiers and mercenaries said to be of Chadian origin. Human rights organisations and some political parties have called for the repatriation of the mercenaries and for the trial of those accused of crimes. The military tribunal resumed operations in mid-December 2003 after eight years of suspension.