Gen Ntaganda was first indicted in 2006 by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for allegedly recruiting child soldiers during the Democratic Republic of Congo's bloody five-year war.
He is now on trial at The Hague, where he was transferred following his surrender at the US embassy in Rwanda in March 2013.
His surrender has been described by some analysts as an act of self-preservation, motivated by the danger he was in after losing a power-struggle within his M23 rebel group.
Additional charges of rape, murder, persecution based on ethnic grounds and the deliberate targeting of civilians were added in May 2012 as a result of evidence given during the trial of his co-accused and former boss, warlord Thomas Lubanga - the first person to be found guilty by the court two months earlier.
A witness testified that as a child he had fought alongside "The Terminator" - saying he was a man who "kills people easily".
Mr Ntaganda denies all 18 charges against him.
The Terminator at a glance
Born in 1973, grew up in Rwanda
Fled to DR Congo as a teenager after attacks on fellow ethnic Tutsis
At 17, he began his fighting days - alternating between being a rebel and a soldier, in both Rwanda and DR Congo
2006: Indicted by the ICC for allegedly recruiting child soldiers
In charge of troops who carried out 2008 Kiwanji massacre of 150 people
2009: Integrated into Congolese national army and made a general
2012: Defects from the army, sparking a new rebellion which forces 800,000 from their homes
2013: Surrenders to US embassy in Kigali, after splits in his rebel group
Gen Ntaganda is "just as dangerous as [Ugandan rebel leader] Joseph Kony", ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has said.
"Not arresting Bosco, allowing him to walk freely, like he's not committed any crimes, is unacceptable."
Impunity and luxury
But that is exactly what happened for several years, with President Joseph Kabila refusing to arrest him - for the sake of DR Congo's peace, he said.
And so, the ex-rebel-turned-army general remained free in the eastern town of Goma, enjoying a life of impunity and luxury, which included fine wine and dining and games of tennis.
The local population was not so lucky.
They blame Mr Ntaganda and his soldiers for a series of rapes, looting and murders - in North and South Kivu provinces, and in the Ituri district of north-eastern DR Congo.
Bosco Ntaganda was born in 1973 in Kiningi, a small town on the foothills of Rwanda's Virunga mountain range, famous for its gorillas.
As a teenager, Mr Ntaganda fled to Ngungu, in eastern DR Congo, following attacks on fellow ethnic Tutsis in Rwanda.
He attended secondary school there - but did not graduate.
In 1990, at the age of 17, he joined the Rwandan Patriotic Front rebels in southern Uganda.
He fought, under the command of RPF leader - now Rwandan President - Paul Kagame, to end the genocide.
After Rwanda's unrest spilled over into DR Congo, he started to flip between fighting rebellions and serving in national armies - both Rwandan and Congolese.
The list of his alleged crimes is huge - and Congolese people say "The Terminator" is regarded as a man who leads from the front and personally takes part in military operations.
In November 2008, international journalists filmed him commanding and ordering his troops in the village of Kiwanja, 90km (55 miles) north of Goma, where 150 people were massacred in a single day.
He also commanded troops accused of having killed, because of their ethnicity, at least 800 civilians in the town of Mongbwalu, in Ituri district, after his troops took control of the rich gold mines in the area in 2002.
In early April 2012, he defected from the Congolese army - leaving Goma, taking with him up to 600 heavily armed soldiers.
On 11 April, Mr Kabila finally called for his arrest - but he said he would not be handing Gen Ntaganda to the ICC.
Later that year, Gen Ntaganda's M23 rebel group seized Goma before agreeing to withdraw.
Months of fighting forced some 800,000 people to flee their homes.
But in unexplained circumstances and with the rebels under intense international pressure, they split.
Gen Ntaganda lost out to loyalists of his rival, Col Sultani Makenga, and apparently fearing death, he walked into the US embassy in Kigali, from where he was transferred to The Hague to finally face justice.
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