The trial of former Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) commander, Thomas Kwoyelo, which was slated to begin on today has been postponed to July 18, 2016, a spokesperson for the Judiciary said in a statement on Saturday.
Kwoyelo’a trial was meant to begin at the International Crimes Division (ICD) sitting at the Gulu High Court on Monday, May 2, 2016.
Solomon Muyita, a the judiciary spokesperson however said the former LRA commander had already been transported to Gulu where he will still appear before the court for a formal postponement of the trial to July.
Kwoyelo was charged with 53 counts of murder, willful killing, robbery, kidnap and destruction of property before the same court in in July 2011. He pleaded not guilty to all the charges he is alleged to have committed while in the LRA.
Kwoyelo’s lawyers protested their client’s charging and took their case to the constitutional court, arguing that their client deserves to benefit from amnesty under the Amnesty Act having renounced rebellion before a prison officer in Luzira prison in January 2010.
The constitutional court ruled in September 2011 ruled in favour of Kwoyelo but the Attorney General appealed the ruling in the Supreme Court which overturned the constitutional court’s ruling in April last year.
The ex- LRA commander was captured by the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces in Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2009.
