The trial of Thomas Kwoyelo, a senior Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebel commander who is facing numerous war crime related charges is expected to resume in May this year in Gulu.
According to one of his defence counsel’s, Kwoyelo’s trial is set for May 2, at Gulu High Court circuit before the Ugandan High Court’s International Crimes Division (ICD).
A panel of 5 high court judges is expected to conduct the trial.
Five lawyers are expected to defend Kwoyelo. They include: Caleb Alaka (lead lawyer), Onyango Owor, Nicholas Opiyo, Ivan Ochieng and Annet Bada.
On Monday this week, the former LRA commander appeared before a single judge Lady Justice Lydia Mugambe for a pre-trial session for the defence and the prosecution to iron out the key issues.
The prosecution, according to a member of Kwoyelo’s defence plans to line up 130 witnesses against the former LRA commander.
Kwoyelo was charged with war crimes, including murder and kidnapping in various locations in northern Uganda, on July 11, 2011 in Gulu.
He denied all the charges.
The trial of Kwoyelo is the first such case before the Ugandan High Court’s International Crime Division (ICD) started in 2011 after the court was established to try crimes of an international nature in 2008.
Justice Moses Mukiibi, the head of ICD revealed in June last year while addressing journalists at the Northern Uganda Media Club in Gulu that the court is ready to proceed with the case.
Justice Mukiibi revealed that they had started to meet witnesses in regard to the cases of Crime against Humanity and War Crimes that the LRA commander has been charged with.
Justice Mukibi further noted that charges against Kwoyelo are not political offences and therefore cannot attract amnesty under the Amnesty Act but rather war crimes under the Section 147 of the Geneva Convention Act.
The head of High Court’s International Crime Division also revealed that the state will also facilitate Kwoyelo’s defence team.
Kwoyelo is accused of attacking an internally displaced persons camp in Pagak where several civilians were killed between 1992 and 2005, laying ambushes along the Gulu-Juba road, destroying civilian property and abducting children in the Awer, Bira, Oputure and Pogo villages.
In August 2010, he was charged with willful killings, hostage taking and extensive destruction of property in Amuru and Gulu districts.
Kwoyelo’s amnesty was application aborted two years ago when the Supreme Court ordered that he must stand trial for murder, rape, defilement, destruction of property, recruitment of child soldiers and mutilation of human body parts.
But cultural, religious leaders from the Acholi Sub Region and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) working for peace in northern Uganda argue amnesty made a positive contribution to the cause of peace in the region and encouraged rebel defections.
