(ANSA) - THE HAGUE, 04 FEB - The International Criminal Court (ICC) today convicted Dominic Ongwen, a Ugandan child soldier who was later commander of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), for war crimes and against humanity.
The 45-year-old Ongwen was found guilty on decades of charges related to the terror regime of the early 2000s, including the first conviction of the CPI for the crime of forced pregnancy linked to women held as sex slaves.
"His guilt has been established beyond all reasonable doubt," said Judge Bertram Schmitt, reading the verdict in the Hague Tribunal.
The court said Ongwen ordered attacks on four refugee camps as senior commander in the LRA, which aimed at founding a theocratic state based on the Ten Commandments of the Bible.
Ongwen was also found guilty of murder, rape, sexual slavery and the recruitment of child soldiers.
The judges rejected the defense's arguments according to which Ongwen was the first victim, since he was lost by Lra at about 9 years old, later reporting psychological damage.
Schmitt, head of the magistrates who examined the case, said there was no "evidence of the defense's statement that [the defendant] suffers from some mental disorder or that he has committed the crimes under duress."
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