The International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague sentenced the former Lord’s Resistance Army- LRA rebel comander Dominic Ongwen, to 25-years in jail.
A panel of three justices led by Bertam Schmitt, Peter Kouvacs and Raul Cano Pangalangan delivered their judgement on Thursday morning.
The verdict was given based on the magnitude of the atrocities he committed and also to serve as detterent measure to similar offenses in the future.
However, Justice Raul had opted for a 30-year jail term, saying on grounds that the 61 counts slapped against Ogwen were not light offenses.
Ongwen will serve his sentence in a facility outside the ICC that hasn’t been disclosed as yet but in a facility in one of the state parties to the ICC.
The judges also said that the process of reparation for the LRA victims will commence immediately.
In February this year ,Ongwen was convicted of 61 crimes including rape, sexual enslavement, child abductions, torture and murder as well as war crimes and crimes against humanity.
He reportedly committed the crimes in Northern Uganda between 2002 and 2005 in Abok, Lukodi, Odek and Pajule Internally Displaced Camps. During the trial, the prosecutions led by Fatou Bensouda had asked the court to hand Ongwen over 25-years in jail.
Ongwen, who surrendered in 2015, is the first LRA top commander to be convicted by the ICC.
The group is suspected to have led to the death of more than 100,000 people, abduction of 60,000, and displaced millions of people, according to the United Nations.
