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Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Justice Duncan Gaswaga’s appointment as a Judge to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights won’t affect the ongoing trial of former Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) commander Thomas Kwoyelo alias Latoni, the International Crimes Division (ICD) of the High Court Registrar has said.
Justice Gaswaga was elected on Friday to the African Court for a six-year term during the 45th Session of the African Union Executive Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs in Accra, Ghana. The 53-year-old judge is one of the four Judges currently presiding over the ongoing trial of Kwoyelo and has been on the trial panel since 2018.
Kwoyelo is facing 78 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity before the ICD for alleged crimes committed between 1993 and 2005 in Kilak County, present-day Amuru district. Juliet Harty Hatanga, the ICD Deputy Registrar told Uganda Radio Network Monday that despite Justice Gaswaga’s new role at the African Court, he will continue sitting on the panel in the trial of Kwoyelo until the case is concluded.
Other judges on the trial panel are Justices Michael Elubu, Stephen Mubiru, and Andrew Bashaija.
Hatanga says the country and the ICD in particular are privileged with the appointment of Justice Gaswaga and described him as a person with a vast legal background.
Justice Gaswaga replaces Judge Ben Kioko from Kenya, who has retired after serving two terms of six years each from 2012 to 2024 at the African Court. Meanwhile, Justice Gaswaga along with three other judges will convene a sitting today at the Gulu High Court to hear highlights of submissions from both the prosecution and the defense lawyers in the case of Kwoyelo versus the state.
The sitting comes nearly three months after Kwoyelo’s defense lawyers closed their case in the defence trial. Kwoyelo presented four witnesses including experts, and himself in defence. According to Hatanga, both the prosecution and the defense are expected today to highlight their submissions and make further elaboration or clarification to the judges on pieces of evidence submitted to the court. The prosecution closed its case in April 2023 and presented 54 state witnesses who pinned Kwoyelo on the indictments.
The Court is also expected to sum up the law and evidence in Kwoyelo’s case for assessors’ tomorrow July 23rd at the Gulu High Court Circuit. The assessors are expected to render their opinion on the case on August 2nd.
Kwoyelo’s trial commenced in 2018 and has been battling charges of murder, kidnapping with intent to murder, pillaging, aggravated robbery, cruel treatment, enslavement, torture, rape, and outrages upon personal dignity. He has however denied all the charges.
The Judges have fixed August 13th as the date for delivering the final verdict on Kwoyelo who has been in custody since 2009 and is arguably the longest-accused person on trial in the world.
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