Uganda court convicts LRA commander of crimes against humanity | Crimes against humanity news

Thomas Kwoyelo was found guilty of dozens of crimes against humanity committed between 1992 and 2005.

A Ugandan court has found Thomas Kwoyelo, the only commander of the feared Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) on trial in the East African country, guilty of several counts, including crimes against humanity.

“He is found guilty of all 44 offences and is hereby sentenced,” Chief Judge Michael Elubu said on Tuesday at the International Crimes Division (ICD) of the Supreme Court in the northern city of Gulu, where the LRA was once active.

He added that Kwoyelo was found not guilty on three counts of murder and that “31 other offences” were dropped.

His crimes included murder, rape, torture, looting, kidnapping and destruction of settlements for internally displaced people, the judge said.

It was not immediately clear when Kwoyelo would be sentenced.

It was the first atrocity case heard by a special division of the Supreme Court that focuses on international crimes.

Kwoyelo, who was abducted by the LRA at the age of 12, denied all allegations against him.

Kwoyelo, a low-ranking militia commander, was arrested in March 2009 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) during a raid by regional forces against LRA rebels who had fled Uganda two years earlier.

He appeared before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in July 2011, but was released two months later on an order from the Supreme Court, which ruled that his release should be based on the same grounds as those of thousands of other fighters who had been granted amnesty after their surrender.

But the prosecution appealed the verdict and he was retried, although the case was repeatedly delayed.

The LRA was founded in Uganda in the 1980s by former altar boy and self-proclaimed prophet Joseph Kony with the aim of establishing a regime based on the Ten Commandments.

During their uprising against President Yoweri Museveni, over 100,000 people were killed and 60,000 children abducted. The terror spread from Uganda to Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic.

Kony is wanted by the International Criminal Court for rape, slavery, mutilation, murder and the forced recruitment of child soldiers. The US has offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture.

Over the years, the Ugandan government has granted amnesty to thousands of rebel fighters, but Kwoyelo was denied such a reprieve.

Ugandan authorities never explained why he was charged, and human rights activists feared that the long delay in his trial was a violation of his right to justice.

Kwoyelo's trial was controversial and highlighted the complex challenges of administering justice in a society still affected by the consequences of war.

The defendant claimed that he was abducted as a young boy to join the LRA and that he could not be held responsible for the group's crimes.

Kwoyelo denied the charges against him and said that only Kony could be held accountable for the LRA's crimes. He also said that any LRA member faced death if they disobeyed the warlord.