The confirmation of charges hearings in the case The Prosecutor versus Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui will start today 27 June in Courtroom I and it is expected to last until 16 July.

The confirmation hearing is a stage of the criminal procedure before the International Criminal Court (ICC), which aims at ensuring that no case goes to trial unless there is sufficient evidence to establish substantial grounds to believe that the person committed the crime with which he has been charged.

The Bogoro attack
Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui are both being prosecuted for their alleged co-responsibility for the crimes allegedly committed during and in the aftermath of the joint attack on the village of Bogoro, Ituri, by the Patriotic Resistance Force in Ituri (FRPI) and the National Integrationist Front (FNI), on 24 February 2003.

On the morning of 24 February 2003, members of Katanga's and Ngudjolo's militia entered the village of Bogoro and launched an indiscriminate attack, targeting mainly civilian members of the Hema ethnic group. It is alleged that the FNI had children under the age of fifteen actively participate in the attack.

At least 200 civilians died in the attack. Moreover, the ones who survived the initial attack were allegedly locked in a building where the dead bodies were stored. Furthermore, women and young girls were abducted and turned into sex-slaves.

Public hearings
Presiding Judge Akua Kuenyehia will open the public hearing. After the opening the charges against the suspects will be read out. Following this procedure, the Prosecution will be given time to provide their opening statements after which the Legal Representatives of the Victims will also present their points of view. The Defence will be given time for their opening statements on the following Monday, 30 June 2008.

Katanga
Germain Katanga (1978), aka Simba, was born in Mambasa, in the district of Ituri, in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Katanga is allegedly the highest-ranking leader of the Patriotic Resistance Force in Ituri (FRPI) since the beginning of 2003.

In that position, Katanga is believed to have played an essential role in the planning and the implementation of an indiscriminate attack against the village of Bogoro together with other commanders of the FNI. He is believed to have ordered his militia to launch this attack.

Mass murder
According to Human Rights Watch, Katanga played a part in the leading of one of the most important mass murder in Ituri, that of the hospital of Nyakunde in September 2002. Over a 10-day period, his combatants took part in the mass murder of at least 1'200 Hema, and other civilians targeted on the ground of their ethnical belonging.

Early March 2005, Katanga was arrested in Kinshasa's Grand Hôtel by the Congolese authorities, along with eight other members of various Ituri armed groups in relation to an attack against MONUC peacekeepers in Ituri on 25 February 2005 in which nine peacekeepers were killed. Later, Katanga was transferred to the detention centre in Kinshasa.

Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui
Mathieu Ngudjolo ChuiMathieu Ngudjolo Chui (1970), aka Mathieu Ngudjolo or Cui Cui Ngudjolo, was born in Bunia, in the district of Ituri. Believed to be of Lendu ethnicity, he is married and father of two children.

He was a corporal in the Zairian armed forces (FAZ) of the former Mobutu Sese Seko. When the first Congo war broke out in 1996, he deserted from the FAZ and started a nurse training in Bunia. Seven years later, he was appointed as one of the three top leaders of the Allied Forces of the Nationalist and Integrationist Front (FNI) and of the FRPI (Patriotic Resistance Force in Ituri).

Arrest
At the end of 2003, he was arrested by the UN on charges of murdering a taxi-motor bike driver in Bunia. He was released in 2004 for lack of evidence. In June 2005, he co-founded and took the head of the Congolese Revolutionary Movement (MRC), a militia that continued to sow terror in Ituri. In July 2006, he signed a peace agreement with Kinshasa, promising to demobilize his troops in exchange for a general amnesty.

As the commander of the FNI, he is believed to have also played an essential role in the attack against the village of Bogoro. He is believed to have ordered his subordinates to carry out this attack.

On 6 February 2008, Ngudjolo was arrested in Kinshasa by the Congolese police and transferred the following day to the ICC detention in The Hague.