The International Criminal Court trial of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo was suspended this week for a two week trip for the defense to the Democratic Republic of Congo for important “research,” presumably this means further investigation into the previous allegations that prosecution witnesses lied or were paid to lie about being child soldiers. The trial...
The Thomas Lubanga Dyilo case at the International Criminal Court in The Hague has been suspended over questions about the transcripts. The court operates simultaneously in French, English, and whatever language a witness is testifying in. The court reporters maintain transcripts in English and French based on the translations offered by the interpreters, both...
The Open Society Institute offered its summary of the Lubanga defense on its Lubangatrial.org website, boiling down the arguments to “witnesses lied, Lubanga not guilty.” The website’s summary, and unofficial transcript of the opening argument of Catherine Mabille, defense counsel for Thomas Lubanga is available here. Catherine Mabille is a Paris-based lawyer and argued...
Lubanga defense witness Claude Nyeki Django testified for the third day that Thomas Lubanga’s Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) did not draft child soldiers. The proceeding stopped for a time because Django broke down on the stand for a second time. After meeting with a psychologist from the Victims and Witness Unit (VWU) of...
Judge Adrian Fulford, lead judge on the three judge panel sitting at the International Criminal Court to hear the case against Thomas Lubanga inquired of the prosecutors why they were late in disclosing evidence to the defense. The defense complained that the late disclosure of information relating to their witnesses just before the witnesses...
A witness called by the defense testified that his son, who appeared as a prosecution witness lied to the court when he testified about being a child soldier in Thomas Lubanga’s army. Lubanga is the first person to face trial at the International Criminal Court. Lubanga, from the Democratic Republic of Congo is accused...
Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times posted in his column today stories of the horrible war crimes being inflicted in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The column, available here, describes the rape of young girls, their being abducted to serve as sex slaves for the rebel armies, and the terror the civilians live...
The defense in the Thomas Lubanga case called two of the witnesses back to testify. The victims had testified last week on their own behalf, as part of the court’s process allowing victims to seek reparations. The victims had previously testified in closed session and were questioned again in closed session so it is...
A third child soldier victim of Thomas Lubanga testified about the treatment of young soldiers at the direction of Lubanga. The victim testified about his abduction and conscription into the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC in French). A detailed report on the day of testimony is available here. The testimony is part of the...
The Lubanga trial entered an unprecedented phase last week as the victims who are seeking reparations from Lubanga and the court testified about the harm they suffered because of Lubanga. The victims tesitfied about their experiences being abducted as child soldiers and of others being held in sexual slavery. A summary of the testimony...
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