By Spy Uganda
Kampala: The International Criminal Court (ICC) have ruled that prosecutors can bring a hearing on charges against fugitive Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony in his absence on Oct. 15 2024.
Judges at the pre-trial chamber II of the “ICC” on Monday issued the decision on the prosecutor’s request to hold a confirmation of charges hearing in the case against Joseph Kony in the suspect’s absence, should he not appear.
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Monday’s ICC Chamber, composed of Judge Rosario Salvatore Aitala, Presiding, Judge Tomoko Akane and Judge Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godínez, had previously already considered that Mr Kony qualifies as a “person who cannot be found” within the meaning of article 61(2)(b) of the Rome Statute.
Kony, the founder and leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), is the ICC’s longest standing fugitive. ICC prosecutors are looking to charge him with 36 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity which includes murder, rape, using child soldiers, sexual slavery, forced marriage and forced pregnancy.
The Ugandan militant denies all of the allegations. His LRA rebel group terrorized Ugandans for nearly two decades as it battled the government of President Yoweri Museveni from bases in northern Uganda and neighboring countries.
In Monday’s decision, the Chamber instructed the ICC Registry to make its best efforts to inform Mr Kony that a confirmation of charges hearing in absentia will take place on 15 October 2024.
Under the leadership of fugitive rebel Joseph Kony, the LRA terrorized Ugandans for nearly two decades as it battled the government of President Yoweri Museveni from bases in the north of the country and in what is now South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Central African Republic.
In 2004, the Ugandan government referred the conflict with the LRA to the ICC, the world’s first permanent tribunal for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
The United Nations says the LRA killed more than 100,000 people and abducted 60,000 children during its campaign of violence, which ended in 2005 when military pressure forced the armed group out of Uganda and its members scattered across parts of central Africa.
The LRA was founded 30 years ago by former Catholic altar boy and self-styled prophet Kony, who launched a bloody rebellion in northern Uganda against President Yoweri Museveni. It has now largely been wiped out by the UPDF.
