ICC confirms all 70 charges against Ongwen

Dominic Ongwen

Kampala- The International Criminal Court (ICC) yesterday confirmed and issued a decision confirming all the 70 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity brought against the commander of the Sinia Brigade of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) Dominic Ongwen.

To that effect, the Pre-Trial Chamber II composed of Presiding Judge Cuno Tarfusser (Italy), Judge Chang-ho Chung (Republic of Korea) and Judge Marc Perrin de Brichambaut (France); who adopted a separate concurring opinion; committed Mr Ongwen to stand full trial. The date of the full trial had by press time not been stated.

According to a press release by the ICC’s press unit, the decision confirming the charges against Mr Ongwen can be appealed only with the authorisation of Pre-Trial Chamber II.

The statement further stated that the ICC presidency will assign the case to a Trial Chamber in due course.

The Hague-based court in January conducted a pre-trial for the confirmation of charges from January 21 to January 27 aimed at establishing whether there was sufficient evidence to have Mr Ongwen committed for full trial.

The court said it would give its ruling within 60 days from January 27.

“The Chamber concluded that there are substantial grounds to believe that Dominic Ongwen is responsible, pursuant to Articles 25(3)(a) (direct perpetration, indirect perpetration and indirect co-perpetration), 25(3)(b) (ordering), 25(3)(d) (i) and (ii) and 28(a) (command responsibility) of the Rome Statute, for the following crimes against humanity and war crimes,” reads in part the court ruling

The confirmed charges concern crimes allegedly committed during attacks against the Pajule IDP (October 2003), Odek IDP (April 2004) Lukodi IDP (May 2004) and Abok IDP camps (June 2004), as well as sexual and gender-based crimes directly and indirectly committed by Mr Ongwen and crimes of conscription and use in hostilities of children under the age of 15 allegedly committed in northern Uganda between July 1, 2002 and December 31, 2005.
Mr Ongwen was surrendered to the ICC on January 16 last year after being captured from the jungles of Central African Republic and was transferred to the ICC custody on January the same year. Mr Ongwen was part of the commanders of Joseph Kony-led LRA rebel group that caused havoc, with millions of civilians being killed and burnt alive in internally displaced people’s camps in northern Uganda for the last two decades.