According to the prosecutor’s office, the accusations against a former militia leader from the Central African Republic (CAR) have been dropped since there is no chance of conviction, which was announced on Thursday.
Maxime Mokom, a former national coordinator of so-called anti-balaka militias, was previously implicated by the prosecution in a scheme to assassinate Muslim civilians in 2013 and 2014.
“Considering the totality of the evidence in the Mokom case and light of changed circumstances regarding the availability of witnesses, there are no longer any reasonable prospects of conviction at trial even if the charges were confirmed,” according to the prosecutor’s office.
At a hearing in August, Mokom asserted that he had not participated in any of the violent assaults on Muslim citizens that the prosecution planned to charge him with between 2013 and 2014.
He testified in court that he spent most of the time covered by the allegations as a refugee stranded in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo. Still, the prosecution said he organized militias and directed assaults.
Since a coalition of primarily northern and predominately Muslim rebels known as Seleka, or “Alliance” in the Sango language, took control of the country in March 2013, the Central African Republic has been plagued by violence.
The rival anti-balaka Christian militias were born as a result of their supremacy. Since May 2014, the ICC has begun looking into the violence in the CAR. The court is now hearing two cases involving two additional anti-balaka leaders and one Seleka leader.
