More Delays in Lubanga Case

Lubanga, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, made history when he became the first person to be arrested by the fledgling ICC and taken into custody in The Hague in March this year.



He was the leader of the Union of Congolese Patriots, or UPC, a Hema ethnic militia established in 2000 in Ituri – one of several warring factions in Africa’s Great Lakes region. The Hema are ethnic rivals of the Lendu people, who live in the same far northeast region of the DRC, near the borders of Sudan and Uganda.



Lubanga faces charges of kidnapping children and using them in front-line activities against the Lendu as well as against United Nations peacekeepers and the DRC’s regular army.



He should have appeared at the ICC for a pre-trial hearing in early June but this was postponed until September 28 because of escalating violence in Ituri ahead of DRC’s first democratic elections in over 40 years. ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo explained at the time that the spiralling violence meant that the safety of witnesses and victims who were due to participate in the Lubanga trial, could not be guaranteed.



As reason for the new delay, the Pre Trial Chamber suggested that some of the evidence the prosecutor will rely on at the hearing has not yet been disclosed to the defence. The chamber said the delay was necessary to protect the rights of the accused and ensure that his defence was prepared in time for the hearing.



A new date will be set at a status conference on September 26.