Following Bokassa, David Dacko was restored in 1981, only to be overthrown once again by his new army chief of staff, General André Kolingba after only a few months in power.

Bokassa claimed that Dacko finally gave up after French President Charles de Gaulle had personally told Dacko that " Bokassa must be immediately returned to his post.

When the defence put up a reasonable doubt during the cross-examination of Dacko that he could not be positively sure if the photographs he had seen of dead bodies were used for consumption, Bokassa's former security chief of the palace was called to testify that he had cooked human flesh stored in the walk-in freezers and served it to Bokassa on an occasional basis.

With the overthrow of the Bokassa monarchy in September 1979, Domitien was arrested and brought to trial on charges of covering up extortion committed by Bokassa during her tenure as prime minister.

Valéry Giscard d ' Estaing was at first a friend of its ruler, Jean-Bédel Bokassa ; he supplied Bokassa's regime with much financial and military backing.

Bokassa was born on 22 February 1921 as one of 12 children to Mindogon Mgboundoulou, a village chief, and his wife Marie Yokowo in Bobangui, a large M ' Baka village in the Lobaye basin located at the edge of the equatorial forest, then a part of colonial French Equatorial Africa, some southwest of Bangui.

During his teenage years, Bokassa studied at Ecole Saint-Louis in Bangui, under Father Grüner.

After the occupation of France by Nazi Germany, Bokassa served in the Forces ' African unit and took part in the capture of the Vichy government's capital at Brazzaville.

Upon his return to France, Bokassa was stationed at Fréjus, where he taught radio transmissions to African recruits.

Bokassa frequently got into heated arguments with Jean-Paul Douate, the government's chief of protocol, who admonished him for not following the correct order of seating at presidential tables.

Dacko did not conceal his plans ; he hinted at his intentions to elders of the Bobangui village, who in turn informed Bokassa of the plot.

Bokassa called Izamo at his headquarters and asked him to come to Camp de Roux to sign some documents that needed his immediate attention.

After Bokassa reciprocated by meeting Tombalbaye on 2 April 1966 along the southern border of Chad at Fort Archambault, the two decided to help one another if either was in danger of losing power.

On 12 April, Banza presented his case before a military tribunal at Camp de Roux, where he admitted to his plan, but stated that he had not planned to kill Bokassa.

On 4 December 1976, at the MESAN congress, Bokassa instituted a new constitution and declared the republic a monarchy, the Central African Empire.

Bokassa, who was visiting Libya on a state visit at the time, fled to Côte d ' Ivoire ( Ivory Coast ) where he spent four years living in Abidjan.

Several of them testified that on their first night in jail, Bokassa visited the prison and screamed at the children for their insolence.

He was said to have ordered the prison guards to club the children to death, and Bokassa indeed participated, smashing the skulls of at least five children with his ebony walking stick.

The court acknowledged that many individual allegations of murder had been levelled at Bokassa but found that the evidence was unimpeachable in only about 20 cases.

Bokassa died of a heart attack on 3 November 1996 in Bangui, at the age of 75.

* Jean-Bedel Bokassa video interview while exiled at Abidjan in 1983 ( French )

On 4 December 1976, at the MESAN congress, Bokassa instituted a new constitution and declared the republic to be a monarchy: the “ Central African Empire ”.

His uncle, whose son Jean-Bédel Bokassa would later crown himself as the Emperor of the Central African Empire, was beaten to death at the colonial police station as a result of his alleged resistance to work.

The prosecutor was Gabriel-Faustin M ' Boudou, the Chief Prosecutor of the CAR, who called various witnesses to testify against Bokassa, which included remembering victims ranging from political enemies to a newborn son of a palace guard commander who had been executed for attempting to kill Bokassa in 1978 when he was the self-proclaimed emperor.

After graduating in 1939, Bokassa took the advice offered to him by his grandfather, M ' Balanga, and Father Grüner, by joining the French Army as a private on 19 May.

Bokassa 1 < sup > er </ sup > ", with S. M. I.

Bokassa 1er ”, with S. M. I.

A M ' Baka, he was a distant cousin of future rival Jean-Bédel Bokassa.

Bokassa moved to Camp de Roux, where he felt he could safely run the government without having to worry about Banza's thirst for power.

* Various documentaries about Bokassa ( French )

Bokassa abolished the constitution of 1959, dissolved the National Assembly, and issued a decree that placed all legislative and executive powers in the hands of the president.

Bokassa felt that he needed to take over the CAR government to solve all the country's problems — most importantly, to rid the country from the influence of communism.

In a move that he thought would boost his popularity in the country, Bokassa ordered prison director Otto Sacher to release all prisoners in the jail.

President Bokassa allowed MESAN to continue functioning, but barred all other political organizations from the country.

In early December 1979, the French council officially stopped all support to Bokassa.

By January 1979, French support for Bokassa had all but eroded after food riots in Bangui led to a massacre of civilians.

But the French courts ordered that all 8, 000 copies of the book be confiscated and destroyed after his publisher claimed that Bokassa said that he shared women with President Valéry Giscard d ' Estaing, who has been a frequent guest in the Central African Republic.

Throughout the entire trial, Bokassa denied all the charges against him.

On 12 June 1987, Bokassa was found guilty of all but the cannibalism charges.

With the return of democracy to the Central African Republic in 1993, Kolingba declared a general amnesty for all prisoners as one of his final acts as President, and Bokassa was released on 1 August 1993.

In 2010, President François Bozizé issued a decree rehabilitating Bokassa and calling him " a son of the nation recognised by all as a great builder ".

By January 1979, French support for Bokassa had all but eroded after riots in Bangui led to a massacre of civilians.

Patassé was the " cousin " of President Bokassa's principal wife, Catherine Denguiade, and gained the confidence of the new president, serving in almost all the governments formed by Bokassa.