Court in Gulu district on Friday afternoon granted bail to John Bosco Uhuru, the Social Media activist arrested in connection with the Apaa Land violence demonstration held in Gulu Town early this week.
The motion filed by the Defense of Dominic Ongwen on February 1St implicates the Prosecution and Trial Chamber II of the Court for irregularly confirming 70 charges and Six modes of liability of war crimes, crimes against humanity and sexual crimes against Dominic Ongwen.
On Monday, a panel of three judges of the International Criminal Court approved the implementation of the six projects saying their execution will have no bearing on the ongoing trial of former LRA Commander Dominic Ongwen. It is unclear how much the projects will cost the Trust Funds for Victims to implement.
Krispus Ayena Odongo, Ongwens lead lawyer says they are demanding the dismissal of the case due to several defects emanating from the confirmation of charges.
Solomy Awidi, a Transitional Lawyer at Refugee Law Project, says the victims shared their frustration with the trials during a documentation exercise to trace the various perspectives of communities affected by the conflict in the greater Northern Uganda held in Dzaipi and Arinyapi sub counties in Adjumani district last week.
Emori explained to court how the LRA military council was made of spirits, which directed Kony on the affairs of the rebel group including when or how to abduct civilians, set land mines, attack enemy forces or hide from the enemies without striking.
The spiritualist who is also a subsistence farmer has been registered as witness D26-0112 among the witnesses of Dominic Ongwen to be called by the defense. He is going to defend Dominic Ongwen, the first former Lords Resistance Army commander to stand trial at The Hague based court as his special witness in a group of 72 witnesses.
To address the confusion, Amooti says Uganda Law Society has developed a project to sensitize victims about their rights before the international crimes division of the high court and how they can access information in the court.
Dahirou Sant-Anna, the ICC International Cooperation Adviser says seven of the witnesses were forced wives of Dominic Ongwen while others were drawn from contextual victims, expert witnesses, Uganda Peoples Defence Forces-UPDF personnel and former LRA insiders.
The Witness said he served as an intelligence officer in the Sinia Brigade that Dominic Ongwen commanded. He said the brigade had an estimated strength of 250 to 300 male fighters and 130 to 150 abducted women and girls, some as young as 14 years old.
Anthony Akol, the Executive Director Charity for Peace Foundation, says many of the children became the seeds of street kids and criminality in Gulu Town because they were never properly reintegrated.
The opening statement expected to last three days will be followed by a judicial recess lasting till 2017 thereafter full trial will commence on January 16th.
