Meet the seven prisoners behind the ICC walls The trial of the former Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) commander, Maj Gen Dominic Ongwen starts today at the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague, Netherlands. The trial, before the single judge of Pre-Trial Chamber II, will be telecast live. The ICC public affairs unit in a statement indicated that Ekaterina Trendafilova, a Bulgarian judge, will preside over the hearing. Maj Gen Ongwen will make his first appearance in the Pre-trial chamber where charges of crimes against humanity will be read to him. The 35-year-old rebel commander, who surrendered early this month near Samouandja province in Southeast Central African Republic (CAR), was indicted by ICC in 2005 for war crimes allegedly committed during the LRA rebellion largely fought in Northern Uganda Meanwhile Ongwen will be behind the ICC walls with six other detainees also undergoing trial at the same court on different dates. All the seven have different cases to answer but the same home to share- Scheveningen prison at the Hague. Meet the Hague housemates: Dominic Ongwen Ongwen was born to two school teachers; Mr Ronald Owiya and Ms Alexy Acayo in Paibona village, Awach Sub-county in Gulu District. The fourth born of eight children was aged six when the LRA insurgency erupted and was 10 years old when he was abducted on his way from school in 1990. He was placed under the mentorship of Vincent Otti, another senior LRA commander who was reportedly killed in 2007 on orders of Joseph Kony. Maj Gen Ongwen will make his first appearance in the Pre-trial chamber where charges of crimes against humanity will be read to him. The 35-year-old rebel commander, who surrendered early this month near Samouandja province in Southeast Central African Republic (CAR), was indicted by ICC in 2005 for war crimes allegedly committed during the LRA rebellion largely fought in Northern Uganda Thomas Lubanga Dyilo was born on 29 December 1960 in Djiba in the Ituri district of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Thomas Lubanga was arrested on 19 March 2005 and imprisoned in Makala, Kinshasa. Lubanga was the first person charged in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) situation as well as the Court’s first detainee. As the leader of the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) and the commander-in-chief of its military wing, the Forces patriotiques pour la libération du Congo (FPLC), Lubanga was accused of enlisting and conscripting children under the age of fifteen and using them to participate actively in hostilities, from September 2002 to 13 August 2003. On 20 March 2006, Thomas Lubanga Dyilo first appeared in Court before ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I. On 10 July 2012, Lubanga was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment. Germain Katanga Germain Katanga, alias Simba, was born on 28 April 1978 in Mambasa, in the district of Ituri, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Married and father of two children, Katanga is understood to have been the highest ranking leader of the Patriotic Resistance Force in Ituri (FRPI) since the beginning of 2003. As the highest ranking commander of the FRPI, Katanga was said to have played an essential role in the planning and the implementation of an indiscriminate attack against the village of Bogoro in Ituri, on or around 24 February 2003, together with other commanders of the FNI. He was also believed to have ordered his subalterns to launch this attack In early March 2005, Katanga was arrested in a leading Kinshasa hotel by the Congolese authorities, along with eight other members of various Ituri armed groups. These arrests were in connection with an attack against the United Nations MONUC peacekeepers in Ituri on 25 February 2005 in which nine peacekeepers were killed. He was still being held without charge when his International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant was issued and was thus surrendered to the court directly. Katanga was found guilty on March 7, 2014, only the second person to be convicted by the Netherlands-based court and sentenced to 12 years in prison on May 23 2014. Jean-Pierre Bemba had an extremely privileged childhood in one of the worlds poorest countries (congo) but this has not saved him from ending up on trial for war crimes at the International Criminal Court. Arrested on May 24, 2008, he was handed over to the International Criminal Court on July 3, 2008 and charged with: Three war crimes (murder, rape, and pillaging) and two crimes against humanity (murder and rape) related to the conflict in the Central African Republic between October 26, 2002 and March 15, 2003. In early April 2012, he defected from the Congolese army - leaving Goma, taking with him up to 600 heavily armed soldiers. On 11 April, Mr Kabila finally called for his arrest - but he said he would not be handing Gen Ntaganda to the ICC. Later that year, Gen Ntagandas M23 rebel group seized Goma before agreeing to withdraw. Gen Ntaganda lost out to loyalists of his rival, Col Sultani Makenga, and apparently fearing death, he walked into the US embassy in Kigali On 18 March 2013, from where he was transferred to The Hague on 22 march to finally face justice. On Tuesday 9th June 2014 the Pre Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court (ICC) unanimously confirmed charges against former Congolese militia leader Bosco Ntganda, who will now face trial for war crimes Charles Ble Goude Charles Ble Goude was born on 1 January 1972 in Niagbrahio/Guiberoua (Gagnoa) in the western center from the Ivory Coast. He belonged to the Student and school confederation of Ivory Coast (FESCI) in 1990 before obtaining his baccalaureate one year later Between 1994 and 1999-, he was imprisoned eight times for the students’ trade-union fights. In 2001, he created the Panafrican Congress of the young patriots (COJEP) which declared a fight against imperialism and neo colonialism. Since April 11, 2011, Ble Goude remained untraceable since the attack of the armed forces of Alassane Ouattara against the Presidential palace of Abidjan held by Laurent Gbagbo and his partisans On 11 December 2014, Pre-Trial Chamber I confirmed four charges of crimes against humanity against Charles Blé Goudé and committed him to trial before a Trial Chamber. Goude faces four counts including murder, rape, persecution and other inhumane acts for his role in a bloody stand-off that followed a presidential poll in the west African country leaving 3,000 dead, according to the United Nations. Prosecutors said Goude commanded men that murdered and raped and burned alive hundreds of people during the post-election violence that ended only after Gbagbos arrest. he however denies the charges. monitor.co.ug/News/Insight/Meet-the-seven-prisoners-behind-the-ICC-walls/-/688338/2602782/-/item/0/-/12t8k9y/-/index.html
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 14:41:00 +0000
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