Agency
The judges at the International Crimes Division of the High Court have fixed July 12 this year for delivering a verdict on former Lord’s Resistance Army Commander Thomas Kwoyelo alias Latoni.
The decision follows the closure of defence hearing of the former rebel commander on Wednesday before the ICD four panel member of justices led by Michael Elubu that sat at the Gulu High Court Circuit.
Kwoyelo’s defence lawyers led by Caleb Alaka presented four witnesses during the defence trial that commenced on April 15 at Gulu High Court, some four months after the court ruled Kwoyelo had a case to answer in 78 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity charges.
Kwoyelo whom the court christened as witness DWI was the first to take a stand in the dock and offered unsworn defence statements denying all charges against him.
The charges allegedly committed between 1993 and 2005 in Kilak County, present-day Amuru District relates to murder, kidnapping with intent to murder, pillaging, aggravated robbery, cruel treatment, enslavement, torture, rape, and outrages upon personal dignity.
Juliet Harty Hatanga, the ICD Deputy Registrar told Mega Fm in an interview on Wednesday that the closure of the defence hearing is a significant milestone in the trial of Kwoyelo which had dragged on since 2019. Kwoyelo has been in custody since 2009 at Luzira Maximum Prison in Kampala and is the first LRA commander facing trial in the domestic court relating to the bloody campaign waged by the LRA in Northern Uganda.
