ICC: Trial of Dominic Ongwen, kidnapped child rebel leader, ends

Text by: RFI Follow

The judges of the International Criminal Court began their deliberations in the Ongwen case on Thursday evening. Former brigade leader in the Lord's Resistance Army, militiaman answers 70 charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes including murder, rape, forced marriage, persecution, looting and conscription of children under the age of 15. These crimes were allegedly committed in northern Uganda between 2002 and 2005, at the height of the war between the militia of Joseph Kony and Yoweri Museveni.

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With our correspondent in The Hague, Stéphanie Maupas

The features are fairly aged by three years of trial. This man, seated in the dock, was kidnapped by the Lord's Resistance Army as a child. Is he therefore a victim or an executioner? This is one of the questions of this trial. And one of the key arguments of his lawyer, Maître Krispus Odongo. " Honorable judges, Mr. Ongwen, who is before you, was only a child when he was kidnapped, brutalized and turned into a fighting machine. He is a victim, like other former soldiers who wanted to escape and who are now participating in this courtroom as victims. He is a victim and this point, honorable judges, is not disputed by the prosecution . "

" No immunity ... "

True, the prosecutor does not deny the obvious. But for Ben Gumpert, crimes committed in the past cannot be a passport to impunity. “ We are not here to deny that Dominic Ongwen was kidnapped. There is no doubt that the manner in which he was treated upon his abduction was similar to the excruciating treatment, as we have heard, which was inflicted on the young abducted from the unit which he himself conducted from many years later. But the line of defense that it should somehow give him immunity from the atrocities he himself committed is untenable . ”

The prosecutor admits that the forced enlistment of the accused in the terrible Joseph Kony militia could be one of the extenuating circumstances, when the judges set the sentence. These magistrates have now started their deliberations. They have until January 2021 to pronounce their verdict.

Justice to take account of Ongwen's child soldier past

Ongwen, victim and executioner: will the ICC take into account its past? Analysis by Milena Jaksic, sociologist

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• Uganda
• International justice