KAMPALA, Uganda. |Update : 24.08.2024
Uganda’s high court International Crimes Division has convicted Thomas Kwoyelo a former commander of the notorious rebel group, Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).
In a ruling delivered on Tuesday at the ICD sitting in Gulu high court circuit did not immediately sentence him.
He was convicted of 78 out of 93 charges including Murder, Pillaging, Cruel treatment, Violence to life, Outrages against the dignity of a person under the Geneva Conventions Act of 1964, Crimes Against Humanity under customary international law including Torture, Rape, Enslavement, Imprisonment and Other inhumane acts, crimes under the Penal Code Act including Murder, Attempted murder, Rape, Kidnap with intent to murder, Aggravated Robbery among others, committed during the rebellion against the Government of Uganda from 1992-2005.
Kwoyelo’s trial commenced in September 2018 and has been in custody at Luzira Maximum Prison since 2009 after being captured by the Ugandan Army in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in March same year.
He is the first among the top LRA commanders facing a domestic court on crimes committed in northern Uganda.
It’s the first time Uganda has tried an LRA member, under a special division of the High Court that focuses on international crimes.
