Court in The Hague to rule on Bemba's release

The International Criminal Court will rule next week whether or not DR Congo ex-vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba should be released ahead of the start of his war crimes trial, it said on Friday.

Judges will hand down judgment Wednesday in an appeal by the prosecution against the court's decision to free Bemba, it said in a statement.

The court in August granted Bemba a conditional release ahead of the start of his trial, but said he had to stay in his holding cell in The Hague while a country is sought that is willing to host him.

No states have volunteered as yet.

The prosecution immediately lodged an appeal on the grounds that Bemba was a flight risk and may harm witnesses in his trial, for which a starting date of April 27 has since been set.

The 47-year-old stands accused of three charges of war crimes and two of crimes against humanity allegedly committed in the Central African Republic (CAR) from October 2002 to March 2003.

He will stand trial for acts of murder, rape and pillaging allegedly committed by members of his Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC) while helping troops of then CAR president Ange-Felix Patasse resist a coup bid.

His trial will be the ICC's third since it started operating in The Hague in July 2002.

A business tycoon who left DR Congo in 2007 after losing presidential elections held during a political transition in the wake of a 1998-2003 civil war, Bemba was arrested on an ICC warrant in Brussels in May 2008.

He had briefly led the opposition, but was forced into exile when government forces tried to disarm his private militia in clashes that killed 300 in March 2007.