Africa-Press – Uganda. The International Criminal Court (ICC), is today expected to deliver its sentence to the convicted senior commander of the Lord Resistance Army (LRA), Dominic Ongwen.
Ongwen was on February 4, found guilty of 61 offenses of war crimes and crimes against humanity that he committed between 2003 and 2004 in Northern Uganda under the civil rebellion led by Joseph Kony.
However, the court reserved his sentencing for another date.
It’s upon this background that the court convened about a fortnight ago to hear out the submissions to determine the weight of the punishment, he will get today.
Upon hearing submissions from the prosecution led by Ms Fatou Bensouda and the defence led by Counsel Krispus Ayena Odongo, who appeared before the ICC judges on the two aforementioned days, the justices led by Bertram Schmitt, retired to write Ongwen sentence.
They said they will return on May 6 to pronounce the punishment for Ongwen to serve.
“The Chamber will now retire to deliberate. It will render the sentence with the reasoning on Thursday, May 6 at 11 o’clock and of course here in the courtroom the summary of the reasoning,” Justice Bertram Schmitt said.
As the country awaits to know what kind of punishment awaits Ongwen, the Rome Statute does not provide for a death penalty as one of its punishments as it is with Uganda’s criminal justice system.
ICC sentences range up to 30 years imprisonment and under exceptional circumstances, life imprisonment or a fine can be imposed.
But during the recent mitigation session, the prosecution asked the court to jail Ongwen for at least 20 years, putting into consideration his participation in the over two-decade Kony insurgency in northern Uganda that leftover 100,000 people dead.
Ongwen was convicted of crimes when he unleashed attacks against the civilian population as such, murder, attempted murder, torture, enslavement, outrages upon personal dignity, pillaging, destruction of property, and persecution.
Further, the crimes he was found guilty of, were in respect to the Internally Displaced Peoples camps of Pajule (10 October 2003), Odek (29 April 2004), Lukodi (on or about 19 May 2004), and Abok (8 June 2004)[email protected]
