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Human rights organisations have all stressed that this is the highest sentence handed down by the ICC to date but also pointed out that with the credit given for the eight years Bemba already spent in detention, he is eligible for early release already in 2020 when he will have served two thirds of his sentence.

“Obviously the sentence was less than requested by the prosecutor who sought 25 years and the victims representatives (who wanted even more) but it is higher then what the defence sought and it's the longest sentence by the ICC so far. We need to factor that in,” said Carrie Comer of rights watchdog FIDH.

“I think we need to look beyond the number and look at the content of the ruling. Look at the aggravating circumstances the judges found the particularly cruel manner of the rapes, the vulnerability of the victims and take the deterrent message from that,” she told IJT.

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