The International Criminal Court (ICC) appeals chamber has allowed an application by former Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebel commander, Dominic Ongwen, to appeal the ruling in which he was found guilty of war crimes.

Ongwen appealed the decision of the Trial Camber IX in which he was on February 4, 2021, convicted of crimes against humanity and war crimes, and he was on May 21, 2021, sentenced to 25 years.

On July 21, and August 26, 2021, Ongwen’s lawyers filed their appeal briefs against the conviction decision and sentencing respectively to the ICC appeals chamber.

Later on October 21 and 26, 2021, the ICC prosecutor filed his response to the appeal, and the victims also filed their observations on the appeals on the same dates.

After the submissions by both parties, the ICC appeals chamber issued an order inviting expressions of interest as amici curiae (friends of the court/impartial advisors to court) in the judicial proceedings on the merits of the legal questions presented in the matter.

The Appeals Chamber of the ICC has as a result ordered that a hearing be held from February 14 to February 18, 2022, to hear submissions and observations by the parties and participants on Ongwen’s appeal.

“The appeals chamber finds it appropriate to hold a hearing to receive oral submissions and observations by the parties and participants, and by amici curiae if any, on the above-mentioned appeals. Having regard to the recommended time limits set in the Chambers Practice Manual, and considering the novelty and complexity of dome of the issues, the number of grounds of appeal raised by the defence, and further noting the upcoming judicial recess, the appeals chamber sees fit to schedule the hearing from February 14 to 18, 2022, shortly after the expiry of the tile limit stipulated in the chambers practice manual,” the ICC appeals chamber stated.

Further directions on the schedule of the hearing and conduct of the proceedings will be issued in due course, according to the ICC appellate court decision signed by the presiding Judge, Luz del Carmen Ibanez Carranza last November.

The ICC Kampala Outreach office said they would update Ugandans on any further directives from the court on the schedule of proceedings as and when they receive them.

Ongwen, the former LRA senior brigade commander, was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity that he allegedly committed as an LRA commander in northern Uganda between July 2002 and December 2005.

The charges fall into three categories: attacks on internally displaced persons camps; sexual and gender-based crimes; and conscription of child soldiers. But Ongwen to date denies committing the crimes. Ongwen’s lawyers include; Krispus Ayena Odongo, Charles Achaleke Taku, and Beth Lyons.

Ongwen’s trial opened on December 6, 2016. Over the course of 231 hearings, the Chamber heard 69 witnesses and experts called by the Office of the ICC Prosecutor, 54 witnesses and experts called by the Defense team and seven witnesses and experts called by the Legal Representatives for Victims.

A total of 4,065 victims have been allowed to participate in the trial. The defense, the prosecution, and the victims’ legal representatives concluded presentation of evidence in March 2020.

In April 2020, trial Chamber IX declined to conditionally release Ongwen from the ICC detention center while he awaited judgment. According to judges, Ongwen’s lawyers did not prove that his circumstances had changed in order to justify releasing him.

The judges said in their unanimous decision dated April 17, 2020, that the reasons Ongwen’s lawyers gave in their request for conditional release – that he was a victim and had been separated from his family – did not convince them to agree to such a request.

“The two arguments advanced by the Defence – the accused’s status as an alleged victim and the fact that he is separated from his family in detention – are not new facts that arose at this stage of the proceedings,” said the judges.

Judges Bertram Schmitt (presiding), Péter Kovács, and Raul C. Pangalangan, who form Trial Chamber IX, are presently deliberating on the evidence presented to them during trial hearings. Ongwen’s trial began in December 2016 and concluded in March this year when the different legal teams made their closing statements.

In September and November of 2015, eight of Ongwen’s former “wives” testified before Judge Cuno Tarfusser about sexual and gender-based crimes Ongwen is alleged to have committed against them.

In March 2016, the three-judge Pre-Trial Chamber II accepted the testimony of seven of these women as credible and confirmed the charges against Ongwen related to them. The transcript of the testimony of the seven former “wives” of Ongwen is part of the evidence Trial Chamber IX is deliberating on.