9 December 2009 - After six months of uncertainty due to the victims' attempt to 're-characterise the facts' to include sexual violence and inhuman treatment, and not just child soldiering, there is now a date for the resumption of the trial of the Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga.
'Victims raise their voice' - read the Aegis interview with the Legal Representative of the Victims
After the Appeal Chamber yesterday reversed the decision of Trial Chamber I related to the modification of the legal characterisation of the facts in the case of The Prosecutor v. Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, Judge Adrian Fulford, Presiding Judge in this trial, has announced the proposed agenda for next year. The trial will resume on the 7th of January 2010.
Upon a request by 27 victims, Trial Chamber I gave notice, on 14 July 2009, that it was considering modifying the legal characterisation of facts, pursuant to regulation 55 (2) of the Regulations of the Court, so as to include the crimes of sexual slavery and inhuman or cruel treatment. In the opinion of the Trial Chamber I, during the course of the trial, regulation 55 allows change to the legal characterisation of facts without being limited to those described in the original charges.
However the Appeals Chamber found that this interpretation was flawed and stressed that to do so would result in a breach of article 74 (2) of the Statute.
In essence, this means that the attempt by victims' representatives to re-characterise the facts relating to sexual violence and inhuman treatment, and not just child soldiering, has failed.
The Appeals Chamber also highlighted that it is the Prosecutor who is tasked with the investigation of crimes under the jurisdiction of the Court and to proffer charges against suspects, in reference to the Legal Representatives of Victims.
According to what Presiding Judge Fulford has announced today, the two experts called by the Chamber will be the first to give evidence when the trial restarts on the 7th, followed by the three participating victims who will testify from the 11th of January onwards. He also has informed that Witness 15, the witness who said had given a false statement, will be re-called by the Prosecution at some stage during the course of the Defence case which will commence after the three victims take the stand.
Thomas Lubanga Dyilo is accused of having committed, as co-perpetrator, the war crimes of enlisting and conscripting of children under the age of 15 years into the Forces patriotiques pour la libération du Congo [Patriotic Forces for the Liberation of Congo] (FPLC), and using them to participate actively in hostilities in Ituri, a district of the Eastern Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), between September 2002 and August 2003.
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