LRA commander Kwoyelo’s war crimes trial adjourned to May

A panel of three Judges of the International Crimes Division of the High Court comprising Michael Elubu, Stephen Mubiru and Duncan Gaswaga ruled in favour of the adjournment.

This was after a team of prosecutors led by the Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions George William Byansi asked for more time to enable them prepare other witnesses to testify in the case against Kwoyelo.

Kwoyelo’s lawyers led by Caleb Alaka did not object to the request. Accordingly, the case was adjourned to May 23rd, 2022.

Kwoyelo’s case has been a protracted one, dragging on for several years and weighing the scales of justice against him.

Only a week ago, the same court sitting in Kampala rejected the plea by the detained Kwoyelo, also known as Latoni, to be tried in The Hague at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

This ruling was made after Kwoyelo complained about the lack of capacity by the court to handle the case in view of the case having dragged on for 13 years.

By justice being delayed, Kwoyelo claims to have suffered a great deal of anxiety and would wish to have a speedy trial as former LRA rebel commander Dominic Ogwen had when tried by the ICC.

The three-bench panel of judges headed by Justice Michael Elubu disagreed and ruled that the trial was before a competent court of law.

Elubu claimed that the delay was caused by certain factors beyond the jurisdiction of the court, but didn’t to elaborate what those factors are.

In 2000, a law was passed to grant amnesty for all LRA soldiers who gave up their weapons and so Kwoyelo surrendered to the Uganda People's Defense Forces in 2009.

According to the prosecution, Kwoyelo, under the command of Joseph Kony, and rose through the LRA ranks to become a ‘colonel’.

According to the prosecution, Kwoyelo led a series of attacks, between 1993 and 2005, on the Abera Village and the Pagak and Pablo camps for internally displaced people, in what is today the Amuru District.

The attacks resulted in abductions, killings, maiming and the torture of dozens of people, including women and children.

In 2011, the Constitutional Court granted Kwoyelo Amnesty but, in 2015, the Supreme Court overruled it and held that he could be tried for acts committed outside “furtherance of the war” as well as crimes against humanity and war crimes in Uganda.

Joseph Kony is still at large Pulse Live Uganda

Kwoyelo is from Pabbo in the Amuru district of northern Uganda.

The LRA is a Ugandan armed group that has engaged in an over two-decade-long conflict with Ugandan government forces, mostly in northern Uganda.

This conflict began in the late 1980s.

In late 2005, LRA fighters crossed into the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and since the end of 2008, LRA fighters have been moving, splintered into small groups, between DRC, Central African Republic and Sudan.

The United States of America (USA) recently announced a cash reward of $5 million (about Shs17 billion) for any information that may lead to the capture of Joseph Kony.

Kony, the overall commander of the LRA, is wanted for crimes against humanity and war crimes.