• About US
  • Our Work
Friday, May 16, 2025
  • Login
Journalists For Justice (JFJ)
  • Home
  • Communities of Justice
  • Opinion & Analysis
  • Human Rights
  • Elections
  • About US
  • Our Work
  • Careers
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Communities of Justice
  • Opinion & Analysis
  • Human Rights
  • Elections
  • About US
  • Our Work
  • Careers
No Result
View All Result
Journalists For Justice (JFJ)
No Result
View All Result

Ongwen appeal judgment set for December 15

byJanet Sankale
December 1, 2022
in The ICC
Reading Time: 2 mins read
16
A A
Ongwen Case

Former Lord’s Resistance Army commander Dominic Ongwen to hear his appeal judgment on December 15, 2022, at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Photo credit: @ICC-CPI

5
SHARES
55
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Whatsapp

Former Lord’s Resistance Army commander Dominic Ongwen will know his fate on December 15, 2022, when the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court will deliver its judgment on his appeal against his conviction and sentence.

The Chamber will be composed of Judge Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza (presiding), Judge Piotr Hofmański, Judge Solomy Bossa, Judge Reine Alapini-Gansou, and Judge Gocha Lordkipanidze.

On February 4, 2021, Trial Chamber IX convicted Ongwen of leading attacks on civilians in the Pajule, Odek, Lukodi, and Abok camps for internally displaced persons in northern Uganda between July 1, 2002, and December 31, 2005.

On May 6, 2021, the court sentenced him to a total period of imprisonment of 25 years as a joint sentence after finding him guilty of 61 of the 70 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity he had been accused of.

RelatedPosts

Dilemma of ICC-wanted Netanyahu’s visit high on the agenda of new leadership in Germany

ICC issues landmark policy to tackle slavery crimes

ICC Prosecutor requests official investigation of sexual harassment claims against him

He is currently in detention in the Netherlands.

Ongwen’s lawyer, Krispus Ayena Odongo, appealed against the conviction and sentence and raised at least 90 grounds of appeal in his filing of May 21, 2021.

Ongwen was among five top Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) commanders indicted by the ICC for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Others are the elusive LRA leader Joseph Kony and Vincent Otti. The judges terminated the proceedings against Raska Lukwiya and Okot Odhiambo after confirming their deaths.

ALSO READ: At last, Kony could face justice if judges allow Khan to try him in absentia

ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan has requested the court’s authorisation to hold a hearing on the confirmation of charges against Kony.

Ongwen is a victim of the LRA, abducted when he was nine or 10 years old. He quickly rose through the ranks, becoming a battalion commander, then a senior commander in the Sinia Brigade. He had 700 soldiers under his command.

He is the first Ugandan and former LRA commander to be tried, convicted, and sentenced by the ICC. He was surrendered to the ICC in January 2015 and transferred to ICC custody on January 21, 2015.

The LRA started operating in 1987 in northern Uganda among the ethnic Acholi communities, which had suffered serious abuses at the hands of successive Ugandan regimes during the country’s turbulent history of the 1970s and 1980s. In its heyday, the LRA abducted and killed thousands of civilians in northern Uganda and mutilated many others by cutting off their lips, ears, noses, hands, and feet.

The United Nations estimates that more than 100,000 Ugandans were killed in the conflict, 60,000-100,000 children and adults were abducted as combatants to the conflict, and more than 2.5 million people were displaced from their homes in the central African region between 1987 and 2012.

In 2004, after many unsuccessful attempts to dislodge LRA both from Acholiland and the neighbouring states of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, and the Central African Republic, the Ugandan government referred the situation in the northern region, on its territory, to the ICC to investigate crimes under the Rome Statute. The ICC issued arrest warrants against Kony and four other senior leaders in 2005 for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Share2Tweet1Send
Previous Post

Tears and agony as Uganda survivors recall brutal police attacks

Next Post

ICC and Rome Statute review high on agenda of 21st ASP session

Next Post
Assembly of States Parties

ICC and Rome Statute review high on agenda of 21st ASP session

Please login to join discussion

Recent Posts

  • Dilemma of ICC-wanted Netanyahu’s visit high on the agenda of new leadership in Germany
  • Michael Correa’s US conviction brings into sharp focus the slow pace of transitional justice in The Gambia
  • Genocide marks 31 years and the clock is ticking for six Rwandans held in Niger
  • Impunity continues to rob Sudanese victims of peace and justice
  • No easy road to ICC justice for Kenya’s victims of abduction and extrajudicial killing

About

We call out impunity wherever it occurs; we advocate justice for all victims of atrocity crimes; and we work with people of goodwill everywhere who share our values.

Twitter Facebook Instagram LinkedIn

Archives by Month:

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Communities of Justice
  • Opinion & Analysis
  • Human Rights
  • Elections
  • About US
  • Our Work
  • Careers

Copyright © 2019. Journalists for Justice has asserted its right to be recognized as creators and owners of the content here. Reproduction in part or in whole is permitted on condition that JFJ is acknowledged and notified.