THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS - When Jean-Pierre Bemba, a rich and powerful Congolese politician, visited his family in Brussels, Belgium, in late May, he had no inkling that he would be grabbed by Belgian police and thrown in jail, ending up before an international tribunal.

His arrest warrant had been kept secret by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

On Friday, Bemba, a former vice president and still a sitting senator in Congo, made his first appearance in court. He has been accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, linked to a 2002-03 campaign by his forces fighting in Congo's neighbor, the Central African Republic.

Bemba, who lost Congo's pivotal presidential election in 2006, is the most senior suspect now in the custody of the court, which holds three other Congolese suspects accused of large-scale human rights violations.

The prosecution is expected to focus on sexual violence in the case, charging that fighters in the service of Bemba became notorious for gang-raping women of all ages in public places and infecting many of their victims with HIV.

Prosecutors contend the fighters also tortured and pillaged, leaving victims dead, wounded or traumatized. Human rights groups have long said that Bemba's militiamen were aiding the Central African Republic's president at the time, Ange-Felix Patasse, whose forces terrorized civilians in retribution for a coup attempt.

During the short hearing in court Friday, Bemba was not asked to enter a plea, but he has denied the charges. He was asked by the court only to confirm his identity and the conditions of his detention.

"The conditions are not the best, not what I had hoped for," said Bemba, who gave his occupation as "senator."

Bemba, 45, is a scion of a prominent Congolese family with a large business empire. He is still an important opposition figure with a considerable following, even though he has spent the past year in Portugal after fleeing Congo amid clashes between his forces and the government.

At home, his angry supporters have denounced the court in The Hague, and in Brussels groups of Congolese immigrants have protested his arrest on the streets.

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