The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday upheld on appeal the sentence of Dominic Ongwen, former general of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) armed group, sentenced to 25 years for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Uganda.
Dominic Ongwen, a Ugandan child soldier, had been convicted of 61 crimes committed in northern Uganda between 2002 and 2005, including murder, rape and sexual slavery.
The ICC judges dismissed the defendant’s arguments about his own past as a child combatant and his justification of alleged mental illness, saying he played a role in the crimes committed by the LRA as an adult.
The LRA was founded three decades ago by Joseph Kony, who launched a rebellion in northern Uganda against President Yoweri Museveni, and is currently unaccounted for. Ongwen’s defense lawyers argued earlier this year that the defendant had been scarred by his experience as a young man in the ranks of the LRA.
«Dominic Ongwen was, and still is, a child,» Ongwen’s defense lawyer Krispus Ayena Odongo told the court in February, adding that Ongwen still believed he was «possessed» by Kony’s spirit, Ugandan media outlet ‘Daily Monitor’ has reported.
The conviction and sentence are now final and the reparation process dedicated to the victims is underway, the ICC said in an official statement.
The ICC brought charges against Dominic Ongwen, Joseph Kony and four other members of the LRA in 2005. Ongwen, for his part, surrendered to the U.S. Army in January 2016 and has now become the first member of the group to be convicted by international justice.
