ICC hands Ugandan warlord Dominic Ongwen 25-year sentence

The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday sentenced former Ugandan warlord Dominic Ongwen to 25 years in jail for war crimes and crimes against humanity. 

The former child soldier who became a commander of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) was convicted in February of 61 crimes including rape, sexual enslavement, child abductions, torture and murder.

"Dominic Ongwen fully intended all of these crimes. He played a key role in their commission, he participated in the planning and personally took part in it. It was he who decided to launch the attacks, he selected the fighters and issued the specific instructions ahead of each attack," the ruling said.

Ongwen was abducted as a 9-year-old schoolboy by the LRA. 

His case is the first at the ICC to involve a perpetrator and victim of the same war crimes.

Court considered 'tremendous suffering' 

"I am before this international court with so many charges, and yet I am the first victim of child abduction. What happened to me, I do not even believe happened to Jesus Christ," Ongwen said.

Prosecutors had sought a lower sentence than the maximum 30 years to life allowed by the ICC considering his trauma. 

He was "a perpetrator who willfully brought tremendous suffering upon his victims, however, also a perpetrator who himself has previously endured extreme suffering at the hands of the group of which he later became a prominent member and leader," Presiding Judge Bertram Schmitt said.

The LRA was particularly notorious for its use of child soldiers.

The group, led by Joseph Kony, subjected northern Uganda to a reign of terror for more than two decades before withdrawing to neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and South Sudan.

fb/msh (AFP, Reuters)