{"id":70421,"date":"2014-12-02T05:26:58","date_gmt":"2014-12-02T05:26:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=70421"},"modified":"2014-12-02T05:26:58","modified_gmt":"2014-12-02T05:26:58","slug":"congo-warlord-loses-icc-appeal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2014\/12\/congo-warlord-loses-icc-appeal\/","title":{"rendered":"Congo warlord loses ICC appeal"},"content":{"rendered":"
The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague has rejected an appeal by the Congolese militia leader, Thomas Lubanga, against his conviction for using child soldiers.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors said boys as young as 11 had been abducted to fight in the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo that started in 1999.<\/p>\n
Girls were used as sex slaves, the trial heard.<\/p>\n
In 2012, Lubanga became the first person to be convicted by the ICC.<\/p>\n
He had been the leader of the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), an ethnic Hema militia which was active in the war that started in the Ituri region in north-eastern DR Congo.<\/p>\n
‘Deterrent’<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n During his trial, the court heard how the influential leader would go to people’s homes asking them to donate something for the war effort – cash, a cow, or a child to fight for his rebel army.<\/p>\n The ICC convicted him of recruiting children under the age of 15 and sending them to the battlefield. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison.<\/p>\n On Monday, the five-judge panel dismissed or rejected all seven parts of Lubanga’s appeal in a majority decision.<\/p>\n “The trial chamber’s assessment of the facts was reasonable,” said presiding judge Erkki Koroula.<\/p>\n The court also rejected Lubanga’s appeal against the length of his sentence.<\/p>\n