On June 8, 2018, the International Criminal Court (ICC) Appeals Chamber decided to acquit Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo from the charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The decision reverses Trial Chamber III’s decision of March 21, 2016, which had concluded that Bemba was criminally responsible for the crimes against humanity of murder and rape and the war crimes of murder, rape and pillaging committed by the Mouvement de libération du Congo troops in the Central African Republic. The Appeals Chamber held that Trial Chamber III had erred in the judgment in two respects: It erroneously convicted Bemba for acts outside the scope of the confirmed charges; and when considering whether Bemba took measures to prevent subordinates from committing crimes, the Trial Chamber erred in its evaluation of Bemba’s motives and the potential steps he could have taken in response to such crimes. The Appeals Chamber also noted a discrepancy between the crimes within the case’s scope and the Trial Chamber’s assessment of the steps Bemba should have taken. Bemba will remain in detention due to his conviction in another case for offenses against the administration of justice, pending a decision in that case by Trial Chamber VII. ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda expressed her disappointment over the judgment in a statement, reiterating the words of the dissenting judges that this was a “significant and unexplained departure” from the Court's previous jurisprudence and expressing concern that this took place “in the most serious case of sexual and gender-based violence decided upon by this Court to date, more so at a time when there is an acute need to send a clear signal globally that such abhorrent crimes must not go unpunished.”