The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Dominic Ongwen has pleaded with the International Criminal Court-ICC to offer him psychosocial support instead of 25 years imprisonment.
Ongwen, the former Commander of the Sinia Brigade of the Lord’s Resistance Army–LRA was on May 6, 2021, sentenced to 25 years in jail by the International Criminal Court –ICC Trial Chamber IX after convicting him on 61 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The crimes were committed in Northern Uganda between July 1st, 2002, and December 31st, 2005.
Ongwen made the plea on Friday during the closing of his five–day–long appeals hearing before the Appeals Chamber presided by Judge Luz de Carmen Ibanez Carranza. He said that the physical and psychological torture he underwent while in the bush including being forced to drink human blood and eat human flesh, left him with permanent trauma.
He revealed that he only understood 40 percent of the entire court proceedings from the pre-trial to Trial Chamber since he is not in his right state of mind.
“One day, I did not feel like attending the proceeding but I was forced into the courtroom, and while in the courtroom, I could only hear sounds of gunshots,” he said.
Ongwen also disclosed to the court that the multiple rituals performed on him by Joseph Kony while he was still an abductee and a child soldier affected his life in the entirety. He says oftentimes he feels drunk despite the fact that he has never drank alcohol ever since he was born.
“I am also a victim of sexual abuse by the older women whom Kony deployed to look after me while I was 7 years old.” He revealed.
He therefore asked the court to pardon him and offer him psychosocial support since the years he spent in the Lord’s Resistance Army –LRA and the detention facility in The Hague are like spending his entire life in jail.
Dominic Ongwen through his defense raised the highest number of grounds of appeals in the history of the International Criminal Court –ICC.
Among the 90 grounds of the appeals he raised include; the Trial Chamber’s failure to articulate a criterion for credibility and reliability of evidence leading to inconsistency and arbitrary determinations on evidence without reason, thereby materially affecting the judgment and appeal process, disregarding the evidence of the age, abduction, and indoctrination as well as his childhood development with the LRA when making evidence of his affirmation defenses, among others.
However, Helen Brady, Senior Appeals Counsel at the Office of the Prosecutor told the court that despite the fact that Ongwen was abducted at an early age, he was not subject to the domination of another at the time of the charge crimes. She also added that Ongwen oftentimes acted with sufficient autonomy.
Victims representatives asked the court to dismiss Ongwen’s appeal and confirm the Trial Chamber’s findings. Paolina Massidda, the Common Legal Representative for Victims says Appeals Chamber should uphold the conviction and sentencing of Ongwen in the entirety since during the hearing, the defense proposed arguments not corroborating with the evidence in the record of the case.
The Appeals Chamber presiding Judge Luz de Carmen Ibanez Carranza says having received all the submissions of the different parties, the judges shall have time to deliberate on the matter and come up with their judgments at an appropriate time.
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