In a major ruling that has gotten tongues wagging, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has upheld the conviction for war crimes and crimes against humanity of Dominic Ongwen, a Ugandan child soldier who became a top commander of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).
Presiding judge Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza said “The appeals chamber rejects all the grounds of appeal presented by the defence and unanimously confirms the decision on the guilt of Mr Ongwen”.
The embattled Dominic Ongwen, who was abducted on his way to school at the age of nine by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), led by fugitive Joseph Kony, was convicted last year of murder, rape and sexual slavery in northern Uganda in the early 2000s.
He was issued a 25-year prison sentence.
According to reports, the ICC does not know the exact age of Dominic Ongwen, who appears to be in his 40s.
Local reports have it that Ongwen had appealed against his conviction and sentence at the ICC, based in The Hague, six years after his trial began.
Founded in Uganda in the 1980s by former choirboy Joseph Kony to establish a Ten Commandments regime, the LRA terrorised large areas of central Africa for 30 years, kidnapping children, maiming civilians on a massive scale and enslaving women.
The judge stated that “The appeals chamber wishes to recognise the extreme suffering endured by the victims of Dominic Ongwen’s crimes during the period covered by the charges”.
Earlier this year, Ongwen’s lawyers had argued that his conviction and sentence should be quashed because he was himself a victim of the LRA as a child soldier.
In February, his lawyer Krispus Ayena Odongo told the court that “Dominic Ongwen was, and still is, a child,” adding that his client still believed he was “possessed” by the spirit of Joseph Kony.
Recall that the ICC prosecutor recently asked judges to confirm the charges against Joseph Kony, who has been on the run for more than 17 years, so that once captured, his trial can take place as soon as possible.
It is imperative to state that the LRA is responsible for the deaths of over 100,000 people and the abduction of 60,000 children, turning boys into docile soldiers and girls into sex slaves.
The embattled Ongwen was found guilty of 61 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including forced pregnancy – a first for the ICC – but also murder, rape, sexual slavery and conscripting child soldiers.
At first instance, the ICC found that Ongwen was not mentally ill, despite his abduction and brutality at the hands of the LRA and that the “White Ant” – his nom de guerre – had personally ordered the massacre of civilians in refugee camps between 2002 and 2005.
The defence had appealed on more than 100 grounds, including that Ongwen was a “scapegoat” for the rebel movement.
In court documents, lawyer Krispus Ayena Odongo said “The judgment is full of errors based on law, fact and procedure”.
The defence argued that Joseph Kony should be in the dock, as he was the one who decided on the distribution of women and children as sex slaves.
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