Lubanga Lawyers Want Case Thrown Out

An investigator from the Office of The Prosecutor, OTP, at the International Criminal Court, ICC, is due to give evidence in the war crimes trial of alleged former Congolese rebel leader Thomas Lubanga.

Presiding Judge Adrian Fulford said last week that the unnamed investigator, as well as two intermediaries of the ICC's prosecution investigators, would be testifying at the trial.

They will testify after one further defence witness, who is testifying this week.

Once all these witnesses have given evidence, Lubanga's defence team will ask judges to stop the proceedings on the grounds of abuse of process, Judge Fulford said.

As far back as January, when the defence submissions began, lawyers for Lubanga announced that they would apply for the case to be thrown out, saying that they could prove that intermediaries used by the prosecution had bribed and coached witnesses.

They also alleged that witnesses who claimed to be former child soldiers in Lubanga’s Union of Congolese Patriots, UPC, never actually served with the group.

Lubanga stands accused of recruiting, conscripting, and using children under the age of 15 in armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo between 2002 and 2003, while he was head of the UPC.

Last week, Witness 297 became the latest witness that the defence has used in order to try to discredit the prosecution's case.

The witness, who had originally been called to testify for the prosecution, claimed to be a child soldier with the UPC, but defence lawyers questioned the conduct of the intermediary who brought the witness to the attention of the prosecution team.

As much of the testimony was held in closed session, it was not clear exactly what these claims were, when they were made or which intermediary they referred to.

During public session, Witness 297 told the court that a relief worker, whose name was given as Mr Mbusa, promised to give him financial support if he quit the UPC militia.

Witness 297 said that UPC soldiers used to extort money from civilians at roadblocks, and at other times were sent by their commanders to get money, although they never handed over all the collections to their superiors.

The witness said that he was reluctant to leave the militia group because being a soldier offered him financial security.

He said that, while serving in the UPC, he had several meetings with Mbusa, some of which were also attended by investigators from the OTP.

According to the witness, Mbusa worked at the time for the United Nations Children’s Fund UNICEF.

“They told me to withdraw from military service and they would help me if I ceased military service,” he said. The witness said he was told that he would be offered financial assistance to enable him to train as a driver or a mechanic.

The witness claimed that he was abducted by UPC soldiers, led by Floribert Kisembo, from Katoto School, which prompted the defence lawyer, Jean-Marie Biju-Duval, to ask why the school is not mentioned in the statements that the witness gave prosecutors in 2007.

The witness said he did not recall what he said to OTP investigators on the issue, but he was certain that he was abducted from Katoto School.

Biju-Duval also asked Witness 297 to explain why, in his interview with Lubanga’s defence last December, he stated that soldiers who abducted him took him to Aru, yet in court he claimed they took him to Nizi.

“When I discussed this with you I had forgotten the names of the towns or villages. If I said Aru, it’s probably because my memory was not working correctly and I had forgotten,” the witness replied.

He added that when he met the defence lawyers, he was not informed that they were going to interview him. “I did not know whether you had come to arrest me. I was afraid,” he said.

Witness 297 completed his testimony on May 24.

IWPR's weekly updates of the Thomas Lubanga trial are produced in cooperation with the Open Society Justice Initiative of the Open Society Institute, OSI. Daily coverage of the trial can be found at http://www.lubangatrial.org/