ICC first verdict: The Prosecutor v. Thomas Lubanga Dyilo

Thomas Lubanga Dyilo guilty of conscripting and enlisting children under the age of 15 and using them to participate in hostilities ( 14 March 2012).

Today, judges of the Trial Chamber I, Judge Adrian Fulford -Presiding judge- judge Elisabeth Odio Benito and Judge René Blattmann decided unanimously that Thomas Lubanga Dyilo is guilty, as a co-perpetrator, of the war crimes of conscripting and enlisting children under the age of 15 and using them to participate actively in hostilities from 1 September 2002 to 13 August 2003.

It is the first verdict issued by an ICC Trial Chamber.

The present war crimes of enlisting and conscripting children under the age of 15 and using them to participate actively in hostilities were committed in the context of an internal armed conflict that took place in the Ituri (the Democratic Republic of the Congo) and involved the Force patriotique pour la libération du Congo (Patriotic Force for the Liberation of the Congo) (FPLC), led by Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, against the Armée Populaire Congolaise and other militias, including the Force de résistance patriotique en Ituri.

Mr Lubanga Dyilo was the President of the Union des patriotes congolais (Union of Congolese Patriots) (UPC), the Commander-in-Chief of its military wing, the FPLC, and its political leader.

Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, a national of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was transferred to The Hague on 17 March 2006, pursuant to a warrant of arrest issued by Pre-Trial Chamber I. His trial, the first at the ICC, started on 26 January 2009 and the closing statements were presented by the parties and participants on 25 and 26 August 2011.

The Chamber will hold a separate sentencing hearing. The Chamber will, furthermore, establish the principles that are to be applied to reparations for victims. The defence is entitled to appeal the conviction within 30 days of receiving the French translation of the Judgment.

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