First case of the ICC

After almost five years of idleness, the International Criminal Court is about to proceed with its first ever case.

The Pre-Trial Chamber today confirmed charges against Thomas Lubanga, who is set to stand trial of war crimes prohibiting the recruitement and enlistment of child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Chamber found that there was sufficient evidence to establish substantial grounds to believe that when the FPLC was created in early September 2002, there was an agreement or common plan between Thomas Lubanga Dyilo and other high-ranking FPLC commanders. The purpose of the plan was allegedly to further war effort by voluntarily or forcibly recruiting minors into the ranks of the FPLC, subjecting them to military training and causing them to participate actively in military operations and using them as bodyguards. The Chamber found that there was sufficient evidence to establish substantial grounds to believe that Thomas Lubanga Dyilo assumed an essential general coordinating role in the implementation of the common plan and that he personally exercised other functions in the implementation of the common plan and that he was aware of the importance of his role.

According to Pre-Trial Chamber I, although the agreement or common plan did not specifically target children under the age of fifteen, but young recruits in general, in the normal course of events, its implementation would entail the objective risk that it would involve children under the age of fifteen.

The Chamber found that there was sufficient evidence to establish substantial grounds to believe that Thomas Lubanga Dyilo and other high-ranking FPLC commanders shared knowledge of this and that all of them accepted the result.

Lubanga is also the first and only person who is in the Court's custody, and is being held at the maximum security prison at Scheveningen (where Milosovic was held and died).