Former Congolese Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba has been found guilty by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of bribing witnesses.

Bemba was found guilty earlier this year of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and jailed for 18 years.

Today, he was convicted of corruptly influencing witnesses and falsifying evidence in that trial. Four close aides were also found guilty.

It is the first such corruption trial in the history of the ICC in The Hague.

The court heard that Bemba and his co-defendants had tried to corrupt 14 key witnesses in the original trial by bribing them with money and laptops.

Delivering the verdict, Judge Bertram Schmitt said the case was ‘about clear, and downright criminal behaviour of the five accused… that resulted in serious offences against the administration of justice’.

“No legal system in the world can accept the bribing of witnesses, the inducement of witnesses to lie or the coaching of witnesses. Today’s judgement sends a clear message that the court is not willing to allow its proceedings to be hampered or destroyed,” he said.

Also found guilty were Bemba’s lawyer Aime Kilolo; his legal case manager Jean-Jacques Mangenda; Congolese politician Fidele Babala; and Narcisse Arido, who had been a witness for the defence.

Bemba was convicted in March of crimes committed in the neighbouring Central African Republic (CAR) in 2002-2003. He was accused of failing to stop his rebel forces from killing and raping people.

Bemba was jailed in June and is appealing against his conviction.

In the latest case, prosecutors had said evidence including telephone recordings, records of money transfers, emails and texts showed Bemba and his aides had tried to pervert the course of justice.

The defence, however, argued that the telephone recordings had been misinterpreted.

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The son of renowned Nigerian environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was executed more than 20 years ago, has died in London. Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr, 47, passed away after suffering a stroke, his family say.

He was a journalist who became an adviser to three presidents.

The 1995 execution of his father by a military government for leading protests against environmental degradation caused by the oil industry sparked global outrage.

Saro-Wiwa Sr led the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Mosop), which accused oil multinational Shell of destroying the environment in his home region of Ogoniland in south-eastern Nigeria.

His execution after a secret trial under Gen Sani Abacha led to Nigeria being suspended from the Commonwealth.

Noo Saro-Wiwa, sister of the late journalist, said: “It is with great sadness that we announce that Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr passed away suddenly. His family are devastated and request privacy at this difficult time.”

Funeral arrangements are yet to be worked out, the family says.

Ken Saro-Wiwa was first appointed in 2006 as a special adviser on peace and conflict resolution by former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.

He later served Mr Obasanjo’s successor, President Umaru Yar’Adua, as an adviser on international affairs and stayed on under President Goodluck Jonathan until he lost last year’s election.

His willingness to work with the federal government marked him out as less militant than his father.

But like his father, he was committed to the cause of the Ogoni people.

In a 2015 opinion piece for the UK’s Guardian newspaper, he wrote that the effects of the oil pollution on Ogoniland had still not been cleared up.

“If my father were alive today he would be dismayed that Ogoniland still looks like the devastated region that spurred him to action.

“There is little evidence to show that it sits on one of the world’s richest deposits of oil and gas.”

A 2011 UN report said Nigeria’s Ogoniland region could take 30 years to recover fully from the damage caused by years of oil spills. The study said complete restoration could entail the world’s “most wide-ranging and long-term oil clean-up”.

It added that communities faced a severe health risk, with some families drinking water with high levels of carcinogens.

Shell has accepted liability for two spills and said all oil spills were bad for Nigeria and the company.

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The new Kenyan Chief Justice David Maraga has been sworn in today at a function held at State House, Nairobi.

At the ceremony presided over by President Uhuru Kenyatta, the 66-year old Justice Maraga said he would strive to eliminate corruption and case backlog that has dogged the judiciary.

A former appellate judge, Justice Maraga succeeds Justice Willy Munyoki Mutunga, who became CJ in 2011.

Justice Maraga was nominated by the Judicial Service Commission and vetted by Justice and Legal Affairs Committee of Parliament before being approved.

Justice Maraga becomes the 14th Chief Justice of Kenya since the East African country attained Independence in 1963. Other before him are as listed below.

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