Pre-trial hearing of Ongwen charges starts at The Hague
Dominic Ongwen
Kampala. The International Criminal Court will tomorrow start the pretrial hearing to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to put former Lord’s Resistance Army commander Dominic Ongwen on trial.
A statement issued by the Hague-based court says the one-week “confirmation charges” hearing will end on January 27.
“If charges are confirmed, the Pre-Trial Chamber commits the case for trial before a Trial Chamber, which conducts the subsequent phase of the proceedings,” the statement reads in part.
Ongwen, the former commander of LRA Senior Brigade, is facing three counts of crimes against humanity and four on war crimes.
Mr Benjamin Gumpart, a senior trial lawyer at ICC, contends that Ongwen committed the crimes between October 2003 and June 2004 when he allegedly attacked four camps of internally displaced persons in northern Uganda and killed, maimed or abducted the victims including children.
Young girls were also abducted and used as sex slaves. “He is responsible either directly leading or planning the attacks on the camps,” Mr Gumpert said.
Ongwen’s lawyer, Mr Ayena Odongo, said the charges against Ongwen have not been substantiated. “We have done extensive investigations and we think our client has been improperly charged,” he said.
Ongwen’s case is a peculiar one because he was abducted at the age of eight and conscripted into the LRA ranks. However, the ICC says Ongwen is not being accused of crimes he committed as a juvenile but the ones he committed as a commander when he was already an adult.
Background
After more than 18 years with the LRA, Ongwen surrendered in January 2015 to Seleka militia in Central African Republic before he was handed over to American Special Forces working with Uganda People’s Defence Forces fighting the LRA in CAR. He was later transferred to The Hague to stand trial. Ongwen is the only LRA commander facing trial out of the five indicted by ICC in 2005. The others are; Joseph Kony, the leader, Okot Odhiambo, Raska Lukwiya and Vincent Otti.
