PARIS: France has arrested and indicted a former guard of deposed Central African Republic president Francois Bozize for "complicity in crimes against humanity", anti-terrorist prosecutors said on Saturday. Eric Danboy Bagale, 41, was arrested in eastern France on Tuesday and placed under judicial investigation in Paris late on Friday, prosecuting authority PNAT told AFP.

Bagale, who served in the presidential guard and then as head of the anti-Balaka militia, was also indicted for "acts of torture" and for "criminal association for the preparation of a war crime" for acts committed between 2007 and 2014, PNAT said in a statement. Bagale was taken into custody in Besancon on Tuesday.