Jean-Pierre Bemba

Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo (born 4 November 1962) is a politician in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). He has served as Deputy Prime Minister of Defense since 2023. He was previously one of four vice-presidents in the transitional government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 17 July 2003 to December 2006. He led the Movement for the Liberation of the Congo (MLC), a rebel group turned political party. He received the second-highest number of votes in the 2006 presidential election. In January 2007, he was elected to the Senate.

In 2008, during a trip to Europe, Bemba was arrested on International Criminal Court charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes. He spent the following 10 years in prison at The Hague, The Netherlands; 8 years awaiting trial and verdict, then 2 more years after conviction in 2016. In 2018, the verdicts were overturned on appeal. The court ruled that because the Rome Statute which sets the court's rules do not limit the amount of time a person can spend in prison awaiting trial, Bemba was not entitled to compensation. It called on member states to urgently review the relevant provisions in the statute. No such review has yet taken place. In 2018, Bemba returned to the DRC where he has since been active in national politics.