The International Criminal Court (ICC) has found Mahamat Said Abdel Kani, a former commander of the Séléka rebel coalition in the Central African Republic (CAR), guilty of crimes against humanity for torture and abuse carried out at a detention facility in the capital, Bangui, in 2013. Presiding Judge Miatta Maria Samba delivered the verdict at The Hague on Wednesday, finding Said guilty on four counts — imprisonment, torture, persecution, and inhuman acts — while acquitting him on three others, including war crimes and cruel treatment. His sentence, which could extend to life in prison, will be determined at a later hearing.

The crimes stemmed from the CAR's devastating 2013 civil war, in which the Séléka — a predominantly Muslim coalition of rebel groups that accused President François Bozizé of breaking peace agreements — marched on Bangui and overthrew him in March of that year. Said controlled the Central Office for the Repression of Banditry (OCRB), a detention unit housed beneath his own office. During the trial, witnesses described conditions of extreme squalor: cramped, windowless underground cells with walls marked by bullet holes and blood, where detainees — many of them suspected Bozizé supporters — were whipped, subjected to stress positions, and denied basic necessities. One witness said the experience had left him