{"id":12519,"date":"2021-06-18T15:37:14","date_gmt":"2021-06-18T15:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/?p=12519"},"modified":"2021-06-18T13:50:30","modified_gmt":"2021-06-18T13:50:30","slug":"ongwen-appeals-conviction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/ongwen-appeals-conviction","title":{"rendered":"Ongwen appeals conviction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Uganda<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>The defence team of former Lord\u2019s Resistance Army (LRA) commander Dominic Ongwen has filed an appeal challenging his conviction by the International Criminal Court.<\/p>\n

On February 4, Ongwen was convicted of 61 crimes, including murder, rape, torture, and forced marriage, committed in northern Uganda in 2003 and 2004.<\/p>\n

Subsequently, the Hague-based court on May 6 sentenced the former child soldier to 25 years in jail for war crimes, and crimes against humanity committed in northern Uganda.<\/p>\n

Ongwen, 45, is the first Ugandan and former LRA commander to be tried, convicted and sentenced by the court.Mr Chrispus Ayena Odongo, the lead defence counsel, told Daily Monitor this week that the team is set for the appeal\u2019s briefing next month.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe already filed the conviction appeal, and we are now going to file our brief and arguments on July 21, we are also appealing against his sentencing. So, the appeal is now cascaded into two, one is against his conviction and second against his sentencing,\u201d Mr Ayena said.<\/p>\n

Why appeal?<\/b><\/p>\n

He said they were able to raise some critical and technical legal components of the trial, which they think were messed up.\u201cPerhaps the case will collapse, altogether if the court of appeal agrees with us, meaning the conviction collapses too and the sentencing becomes mute and inconsequential,\u201d Mr Ayena said.<\/p>\n

Upon filing the brief by the defence team, the court is expected to fix a date for oral argument by the former.Mr Ayena said they were also preparing grounds to appeal against the sentencing through the same procedures.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are preparing to file an appeal for sentencing in the next two weeks for which we already filed a notice of appeal on the 4th last month,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Judges Bertram Schmitt and P\u00e9ter Kov\u00e1cs gave the 25-year sentence while their counterpart Raul Cano Pangalangan gave a dissenting opinion that would have sentenced Mr Ongwen to 30 years imprisonment.<\/p>\n

The Chamber imposed individual sentences for each crime, taking the mitigating circumstance of Ongwen\u2019s childhood and abduction by the LRA into due account.<\/p>\n

The Trial Chamber analysed one-by-one the gravity of each of the 61 crimes for which Ongwen was convicted, finding several aggravating circumstances applicable to some or even most crimes, the Court said.<\/p>\n

Aggravating circumstances included particular cruelty, the multiplicity of victims, the victims being particularly defenceless, and discrimination on political grounds and discrimination against women, a press release from the ICC said.<\/p>\n

Although the 1,077-paged court judgment is now being seen by victims as pivotal in the region\u2019s healing process from the physical and psychological wounds inflicted by the war, Ongwen\u2019s lawyers claim the ruling is \u2018utterly embarrassing\u2019 and worth an appeal.<\/p>\n

Mr Ayena said the court did not only fail to evaluate evidence of the defence \u2014 including proof that Ongwen was \u201ca prisoner\u201d in an LRA camp during the attacks, but reluctantly declined to admit that there were no forced marriage in captivity but cohabitation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe judges should have admitted that what happened in the bush was not marriage but cohabitation. Court didn\u2019t prove that there were ceremonies through which two people went during which their parents exchanged gifts, to validate a marriage traditionally,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Ayena said much as Ongwen was entitled to a translation of all the documents into the Acholi language, especially those of all the charges against him as well as those of procedures of confirmation of charges, the court ignored it.<\/p>\n

\u201cOngwen can only fully and meaningfully participate in his appeal with an Acholi translation of the judgment because he is a special needs person with mental disabilities, and requires adequate time and resources to communicate with and instruct his counsel,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Ayena said he was shocked that at some point the judges argued that since his counsel was a Luo speaker, he would translate for him \u201cAm I a translator? I am not. In any case, I would be influencing him if I translated for him, this violated his right to a fair trial.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Ayena argues that the evaluation of the evidence was badly handled and that several witnesses openly lied to the court and the judges deliberately ignored the defence over that.<\/p>\n

Faulted<\/b><\/p>\n

The defence team also faults the court for failing to admit Ongwen\u2019s defence of alibi when the accused in many instances claimed he was absent from the scene of the alleged crimes.<\/p>\n

Defence of alibi loosely translated to \u2018I was not there, I was not at the scene of the crime at the time you allege that I participated in the crime.\u2019<\/p>\n

The law on defence of alibi is that once an accused raises it, the burden of proof shifts to the prosecution to bring the accused and fix him at the scene of the crime, meaning it is the prosecution to disprove the accused.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn criminal law world over, even in the Rome Statute under Article 67, 1(i), the burden applies. The prosecution must prove each element of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt, which is the same for an affirmative defence for mental disease or duress,\u201d Mr Ayena said.<\/p>\n

He said the LRA was not a formal army but was predicated on crude African spiritualism, which affected Ongwen\u2019s mental state so severely.<\/p>\n

But the judges, during the ruling, rejected the defence\u2019s arguments that Ongwen was a victim, as he had been abducted by the LRA at the age of about nine and suffered psychological damage as a result.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe chamber did not find evidence for the claim by the defence that he suffered from any mental disease or that he committed the crimes under duress,\u201d Judge Bertram Schmitt said.<\/p>\n

Sentence procedure<\/b><\/p>\n

During the sentencing procedure, presiding judge Bertram Schmitt said while handing down the sentence, the court gave weight to certain mitigating circumstances of Ongwen\u2019s childhood, his abduction by the LRA at a very young age and early stay with the rebel group. \u201cThe Chamber was confronted in the present case with a unique situation. It is confronted with a perpetrator who willfully and lucidly brought tremendous suffering upon his victims. However, it is also confronted with a perpetrator who had previously endured extreme suffering himself at the hands of the group of which he later became a prominent member and leader,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. The defence team of former Lord\u2019s Resistance Army (LRA) commander Dominic Ongwen has filed an appeal challenging his conviction by the International Criminal Court. On February 4, Ongwen was convicted of 61 crimes, including murder, rape, torture, and forced marriage, committed in northern Uganda in 2003 and 2004. Subsequently, the Hague-based court […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":12518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,12],"tags":[233,240,234],"class_list":["post-12519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-uganda","tag-uganda"],"yoast_head":"\nOngwen appeals conviction - Uganda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The defence team of former Lord\u2019s Resistance Army (LRA) commander Dominic Ongwen has filed an appeal challenging his con ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/ongwen-appeals-conviction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ongwen appeals conviction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The defence team of former Lord\u2019s Resistance Army (LRA) commander Dominic Ongwen has filed an appeal challenging his con ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/ongwen-appeals-conviction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Uganda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-06-18T15:37:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/06\/img-60cca4878045e.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/ongwen-appeals-conviction#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/ongwen-appeals-conviction\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Ongwen appeals conviction\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-06-18T15:37:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/ongwen-appeals-conviction\"},\"wordCount\":1050,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/ongwen-appeals-conviction#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/06\/img-60cca4878045e.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Uganda\",\"uganda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/ongwen-appeals-conviction#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/ongwen-appeals-conviction\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/ongwen-appeals-conviction\",\"name\":\"Ongwen appeals conviction - 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