Thomas Lubanga

Thomas Lubanga Dyilo (born December 29, 1960 in Jiba, Ituri District , Orientale Province in Congo-Léopoldville ) is the founder and former leader of the Union des Patriotes Congolais (UPC), an armed militia active in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Lubanga is the first person against whom criminal proceedings before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague have been finalized. Lubanga was sentenced to 14 years in prison for the war crime of recruiting and using child soldiers in the course of the Second Congo War .

Youth and family

Lubanga belongs to the Hema people , he studied at Kisangani University and has a degree in psychology. He is married and has seven children.

Union des Patriotes Congolais (UPC)

During the Second Congo War from August 1998 to July 2003, Lubanga was a commander in the Mouvement de Liberation, allied with Uganda . In 2000, with Ugandan support, he founded the Union des Patriotes Congolais and, with this armed militia, consisting mainly of members of the Hema ethnic group, participated in the Ituri conflict against the rival ethnic group of the Lendu . In 2002, large numbers of civilians were killed during the UPC's capture of the city of Bunia . In the years that followed, there were repeated allegations against the UPC regarding involvement in extensive murders, torture and rape of civilians and the forced recruitment of child soldiers.

Arrest and trial

The building of the International Criminal Court in The Hague

After the murder of nine blue helmet soldiers of the MONUC peacekeeping forces in March 2005, Lubanga was arrested by the Congolese authorities together with other high-ranking militia leaders on March 19, 2005 and imprisoned in Kinshasa . However, it was not initially clear whether he would be tried in the International Criminal Court or in a national court. The Democratic Republic of the Congo has been a party to the Rome Statute of the ICC since April 2002 and had already asked the Court of Justice on March 3, 2004 to investigate the situation in the east of the country.

On February 10, 2006, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Lubanga on suspicion of war crimes , the recruitment and engagement of children under the age of 15 for military purposes and the use of children for active participation in armed conflicts. Based on the evidence, the court waived charges of possible further crimes. Lubanga was then handed over to the International Criminal Court by the Congolese authorities on March 17, 2006, transferred to the United Nations Detention Unit in Scheveningen and charged with this court on August 28, 2006. He was the first suspect to be handed over to the ICC following an arrest warrant, and also the first accused in the history of the court. The trial of Lubanga began on January 26, 2009 under Article 8 (2) of the Rome Statute .

After the prosecution's refusal to disclose the identity of a witness, the proceedings were temporarily suspended on July 8, 2010 by the Pre-Trial Chamber. Lubanga remained in custody after the prosecution objected to this decision. On March 14, 2012, he was found guilty by the court and sentenced to July 10, 2012. Lubanga was sentenced to 14 years in prison. On December 1, 2014 the judgment was upheld by the Appeal Chamber of the Court of Justice. Since the International Criminal Court itself does not operate prisons for convicts, Lubanga was transferred to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in December 2015 to serve his sentence.

Final verdict in July 2019

Congo "Terminator" found guilty: Lubanga was found guilty of war crimes in the Congo. These include massacres, sexual slavery and the use of child soldiers in 2002 and 2003. The judges found him guilty on all 18 counts ... It is the first judgment on the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war in the Congo. The maximum sentence is life imprisonment. Former rebel leader Thomas Lubanga had (already) been sentenced to 14 years by the War Crimes Court in Congo in 2012 for using child soldiers. "

- Grenz-Echo , July 9, 2019

Web links

Information about Thomas Lubanga from the Swiss association TRIAL
Case The Prosecutor v. Thomas Lubanga Dyilo (ICC; English; PDF; 295 kB)

Individual evidence

↑ Thomas Lubanga. In: aegis. Archived from the original on February 9, 2012 ; accessed on March 14, 2012 (English).
↑ Congolese militia leader found guilty. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . March 14, 2012, accessed March 14, 2012 .
↑ Two ex-militia leaders transferred to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In: The time . December 19, 2015, archived from the original on December 23, 2015 ; Retrieved December 20, 2015 .

personal data
SURNAME	Lubanga, Thomas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Lubanga Dyilo, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Congolese militia leader from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and alleged war criminal
DATE OF BIRTH	December 29, 1960
PLACE OF BIRTH	Jiba , Ituri District , Orientale Province , Congo-Léopoldville

[AELub-1] Thomas Lubanga. In: aegis. Archived from the original on February 9, 2012 ; accessed on March 14, 2012 (English).

[FAZschuldig-2] Congolese militia leader found guilty. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . March 14, 2012, accessed March 14, 2012 .

[3] Two ex-militia leaders transferred to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In: The time . December 19, 2015, archived from the original on December 23, 2015 ; Retrieved December 20, 2015 .