Business magnate, former Democratic Republic of Congo rebel leader and later Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba, who has been arrested in Belgium, must have thought he had left his troubles behind him when he went into exile.
Mr Bemba fled treason charges in DR Congo after his bodyguards and the army clashed in the capital, Kinshasa, in March 2007, months after his defeat in presidential elections.
But he unexpectedly became a target for the fledgling International Criminal Court, which has charged him with committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Central African Republic (CAR) in 2002.
Further indictments relating to DR Congo's own 1998-2003 civil war could follow.
Human rights activists have hailed the arrest, saying it sends a strong signal to those with power who felt they could act with impunity.
Business first
Mr Bemba spent his childhood between the Belgium and Congolese capitals - Brussels and Kinshasa - and the small remote town of Gbadolite in northern DR Congo known as "Versailles in the Jungle".
This was the home and last refuge of the late Congolese leader Mobutu Sese Seko.
Mr Bemba's father, the successful businessman Bemba Saolona, was very close to the former dictator.
But for him business was his first and only allegiance.
In an old documentary, recently shown in Kinshasa, he was filmed between sets of tennis saying that as businessmen were vital to DR Congo he would be prepared to work with whoever was in power.
This is exactly what happened when Laurent Kabila's troops overthrew Mobutu and marched into Kinshasa in May 1997: Saolona was briefly appointed a finance minister in the new regime.
Father and son, however, have not always seen eye-to-eye.
Mr Bemba, who at a very young age lost his mother and has had difficult relations with his father and stepmothers, explicitly criticised his father's acquaintance with Laurent Kabila in his book The Choice of Freedom.
A great admirer of controversial French businessman Bernard Tapie and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, the young Bemba sought other father figures.
Perhaps his greatest influence was Mobutu himself, who employed him at the age of 30 as his personal assistant in the early 1990s.
Another person central to his rising star was Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.
He supplied Mr Bemba with troops, equipment and training when he launched his rebel group, the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC), in 1998.
In only a few months, the MLC managed to capture northern DR Congo.
The military pressure he put on Laurent Kabila's regime eventually led to a peace deal that set the basis of a power-sharing government and paved the way to the current electoral process.
Reign of terror
A characteristic Mr Bemba shares with his father is the knack of making money.
He holds an MBA from a prestigious business school in Brussels and kept his economic activities running throughout the war: looking after family-owned coffee plantations and wood factories.
Former allies claim most of Mr Bemba's fortune comes from gifts from African leaders such as Libya's Muammar Gaddafi.
Whatever the source, by the end of the war, the rebel-turned-politician had accrued enough wealth to buy a helicopter and several planes, which he sometimes likes to pilot himself, and has since invested in DR Congo's aviation business.
He also became involved in external conflict, asked in 2002 by then CAR President Ange-Felix Patasse to put down a coup attempt.
It was the ensuing reign of terror, involving alleged lootings, civilian killings and mass rape of hundreds of women, which led to the current charges being filed against him.
After he laid down his arms in 2003, Mr Bemba was sworn in as a vice-president back home in charge of finance in the interim administration.
He became increasingly influential, gaining the support of a number of historic political figures in DR Congo, and stood for the country's presidency in 2006.
But he was ultimately deserted by many allies who blamed his "oversized ego" for withdrawing their support. He lost the run-off against incumbent Joseph Kabila in October of that year.
Following his defeat, he was accused of refusing to disarm his militia and of unleashing violence in Kinshasa.
Mr Bemba has always denied the charges.
^ Back to top | BBC Sport Home | BBC Homepage | Contact us | Help | ©
~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~25~RS~)