Ongwen faces 60 additional charges at the ICC

The International Criminal Court Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has expanded the charges against Lord’s Resistance Army Commander Dominic Ongwen.Bensouda in her Notice of intended charges against Dominic Ongwen, she states, “The charges are organised into thematic categories: attacks on internally displaced persons’ camps, persecution, sexual and gender based crimes, and child soldier conscription and use.”   The Prosecution gave formal notice September 18 that it intends to expand the scope of the charges.    “The additional counts will be filed as part of the Prosecution’s charging document on December 21 2015. Early notice of these additional charges was required by the Pre-Trial Chamber in order to allow the defence sufficient time to prepare.”   The new charges, which will be added to those already contained in the arrest warrant, relate to three additional incidents related to alleged attacks occurring at Pajule, Odek, and Abok.   Ongwen originally faced seven charges linked to a single attack on a refugee camp in Uganda in 2004.   The charges facing him were three counts of crimes against humanity (murder; enslavement; inhumane acts of inflicting serious bodily injury and suffering) and four counts of war crimes (murder; cruel treatment of civilians; intentionally directing an attack against a civilian population; pillaging) allegedly committed in 2004 within the context of the situation in Uganda.   He was surrendered to the ICC on 20 January 2015.