War crimes: ICC one step closer to hearing in absence of Kony

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The International Criminal Court (ICC) is one step closer to hearing in absence of Lord's Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony in his absence.

This was after the International Criminal Court (ICC) judges issued a preliminary decision on holding a confirmation of charges hearing against Kony.

On Thursday, Judge Rosario Salvatore Aitala, Presiding, Judge Tomoko Akane and Judge Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godínez, ordered the ICC Prosecutor, to submit within four weeks, a plan indicating the outreach activities and notification efforts it would pursue to inform Kony of the charges against him.

The judges’ directive follows the prosecutors’ request to hold a hearing on the confirmation of charges against Kony in his absence filed on November 24, 2022 and subsequent submissions by parties and participants, after Kony failed to be arrested.

To the public, Kony has vanished without a trace. 

In 2005, the ICC issued an arrest warrant against Kony, to stand trial on 33 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, in vain.

To intensify the hunt for Kony, the United States placed a $5m (about sh18b) bounty for any person who arrests the LR A chief, whose whereabouts remain a mystery.

On Thursday, Dahirou Sant-Anna also revealed that the ICC intends to slap more charges against Kony.

“The Chamber found that such cause potentially exists. As part of its assessment, it recalled that holding a confirmation hearing in absentia is exceptional,” according to the judges.

The Chamber balanced the fair trial rights of the suspect, on the one hand, and the interests of justice on the other hand, including the gravity of the alleged crimes and the alleged role of the suspect in their perpetration; the impact of the confirmation hearing on victims; and the prospect of the case further advancing should the charges be confirmed.

The Chamber also recalled that the Rome Statute does not allow proceedings in the suspect’s absence beyond the confirmation of charges hearing at the Pre-Trial Stage.

Should the charges be confirmed, the case cannot proceed to trial, because any trial requires Kony to be present before the Court.

Fact file 
Kony is accused of committing murder, cruel treatment, enslavement, rape, and attacks against the civilian population in Northern Uganda.

The LRA rebel leader launched a brutal rebellion from Northern Uganda against President Yoweri Museveni’s leadership that left over 1 million people displaced and hundreds of thousands killed in a war that spanned two decades.

The violence escalated and spilt over to neighbouring South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Central African Republic.

The Government of Uganda is also probing allegations that the former advisor to the ICC prosecutor provided Kony with funds and sex slaves.

The government was compelled to institute investigations after several victims came out and pinned Inder Brigid, the former executive director of Women’s Initiative for Gender Justice (WIGJ), on allegations of facilitating and funding Kony between 2006 and 2017.

Brigid is the former advisor to prosecutor Fatou Bensound, who is now the Gambian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.