Congo warlord Katanga’s sentence reduced after he expresses remorse.

• Following an appeal from Katanga, a panel of three judges from the war crimes tribunal in The Hague reviewed his sentence and decided to reduce it to eight years and four months.
• Last month, the man once dubbed “Simba” the lion because of his ferocity,
  exercised his right to appeal to the tribunal to grant him early release after spending two-thirds of his sentence.
• He was accused of supplying weapons in the 2003 ethnic attack in which 200 people were killed, some of them hacked to death
• The Ituri region where the Bogoro massacre occurred has been hit with violence since 1999, when clashes broke out that killed at least 60,000 people, according to rights groups.

what went down.

'SIMBA' THE LION

Last month, the man once dubbed “Simba” the lion because of his ferocity, exercised his right to appeal to the tribunal to grant him early release after spending two-thirds of his sentence.

Under ICC rules, time served in custody before sentencing is taken into account.

Katanga also offered his apologies to his victims, insisting he had turned his back on the militias which still wreak havoc in parts of the DR Congo.

“The immense pain of my victims is something which profoundly affects me,” Katanga said.

“I have heard their cries of pain and suffering with a feeling of regret and respect,” Katanga told the judges, adding that he too had lost his father and brother.

A former member of the armed fighters of the Patriotic Resistance Forces in Ituri, Katanga said he wanted to live with his six children in his country and be a farmer.

He added that he was prepared to work with the UN special mission in the country and the government to rein in residual groups of militias.

The judges said they had considered if Katanga’s release would “rise to some social instability in the DRC, but found no evidence to suggest that it would be of a significant level.”

However, HRW called on the court to monitor the security situation and ensure the safety of witnesses who testified against him.