Trial of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo

Thomas Lubanga Dyilo:

Alleged founder of Union des Patriotes Congolais (UPC) and the Forces patriotiques pour la libération du Congo(FPLC); Alleged former Commander-in-Chief of the FPLC, since September 2002 and at least until the end of 2003. Alleged president of the UPC.

Charges:

1. Enlisting and conscripting of children under the age of 15 years into the FPLC and using them to participate actively in hostilities in the context of an international armed conflict from early September 2002 to 2 June 2003.
2. Enlisting and conscripting children under the age of 15 years into the FPLC and using them to participate actively in hostilities in the context of an armed conflict not of an international character from 2 June 2003 to 13 August 2003.

Links

• The International Criminal Court
• Case information sheet
• International Justice Tribune
• The Lubanga Trial at the International Criminal Court
• Thomas Lubanga Dyilo (TRIAL)

 

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has stayed proceedings in the war crimes trial against Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga Dyilo.

Trial judges on Thursday said that as long as the prosecutor refused to implement their orders “a fair trial is no longer possible and justice cannot be done, not least because the judges will have lost control of a significant aspect of the trial proceedings.”

Prosecutors’ “unequivocal refusal to implement the repeated orders” to disclosure the identity of an intermediary to the defence, make it “necessary to stay these proceedings as an abuse of the process of the court,” the ruling added.

After Lubanga’s defence claimed that prosecution intermediaries bribed and coached witnesses to provide false testimony, judges ordered prosecutors to call two intermediaries to testify and to disclose the name of “intermediary 143’’.

But ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo refused, saying it could put the intermediary’s safety at risk.
“[Ocampo] cannot be allowed to continue with this prosecution if he seeks to reserve to himself the right to avoid the court’s orders whenever he decides that they are inconsistent with his interpretation of his other obligations,” the judges ruled.

Ocampo’s office refused to comment on the decision saying that “this is a legal discussion with chambers,” but added that that they will appeal the ruling.

The ICC last week also postponed the start of the trial against former vice president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Jean-Pierre Bemba. The trial was set to open today but the trial chamber decided to await a ruling by the court’s appeals chamber on the admissibility of the case.

Published in the International Justice Tribune 110