ICC prosecutor requests extension to confirm charges against LRA commander News
ICC prosecutor requests extension to confirm charges against LRA commander

[JURIST] International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda [official profile] on Friday requested a three-month extension to gather evidence to confirm charges against Dominic Ongwen [BBC profile]. The former Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) [State Department backgrounder] commander made his first appearance [JURIST report] before the ICC at the end of January. Ongwen is charged [arrest warrant, PDF] with three counts of crimes against humanity and four counts of war crimes for his alleged role in the extremist militant movement that has plagued central Africa for more than 25 years.

Uganda’s attorney general assured the ICC earlier this month that the government will cooperate [JURIST report] in Ongwen’s trial. This support of the ICC’s prosecution of Ongwen marks a major shift in policy by the Ugandan government, which had in January expressed opposition to the ICC’s involvement and had instead wished to try him in the country after his surrender [JURIST report]. Also in January the chief prosecutor for the ICC urged renewed efforts [JURIST report] to arrest LRA leader and accused war criminal Joseph Kony [BBC profile; JURIST news archive]. At the beginning of January Ongwen surrendered himself in the Central African Republic, after which he was put in US custody.