Restart of Congo warlord’s trial ordered

The International Criminal Court yesterday ordered the resumption of the war crimes trial of Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga, stalled since July, and reversed an order to free him.

“The decision to stay proceedings must be reversed,” judge Sang-Hyun Song, president of the court’s appeals chamber, said in The Hague.Mr Lubanga, 49, went on trial in January 2009 accused of using children under the age of 15 to fight for his militia during the five-year civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo which ended in 2003.

The ICC suspended his trial on July 8 after criticising chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo for abusing court processes and ignoring judges’ orders. Ocampo had been ordered to disclose to Mr Lubanga’s defence team the name of an “intermediary” used by prosecution investigators to find witnesses, which he refused to do citing security concerns.

On July 15, the court ordered that Mr Lubanga be freed as his detention was “no longer fair” given the suspension of the trial. The execution of this ruling was delayed pending the outcome of the prosecutor’s appeal against both decisions.