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Africa Subsaharan |
ICC prosecutor seeks 30 years in Lubanga case |
2012-06-14 |
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga, convicted of using child soldiers in his rebel army, should be sentenced to 30 years in jail, the ![]() ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... chief prosecutor said on Wednesday. "The prosecution requests the chamber to impose a sentence of 30 years in prison," Luis Moreno-Ocampo told judges before the court in The Hague, adding he was asking for a "severe sentence". Lubanga, 51, was convicted in March of war crimes for using child soldiers in a brutal conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in the ICC's first verdict since it started work a decade ago. He was found guilty of abducting children as young as 11 and forcing them to fight and commit atrocities in 2002-3 in the DRC's northeastern gold-rich Ituri region. During the trial prosecutors told how maidens of tender years served as sex-slaves, while young boys were trained to fight. Lubanga risks 30 years in jail or, if judges decide the crimes are exceptionally grave, life in prison. In a submission in May, Moreno-Ocampo asked judges to take into account the scale and brutality of Lubanga's crimes, the vulnerability of his victims and the impact on them. "The prosecution will request a sentence in the name of each child recruited, in the name of the Ituri region," the outgoing prosecutor told the court on Wednesday. |
Posted by:Fred |