The Trial Chamber IX of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has scheduled hearings in the last two weeks of November for defense mental health experts to explain why, in their opinion, Dominic Ongwen the former leader of Uganda’s rebel outfit the Lord’s Resistance Army had a mental illness or defect during the period that he has been charged with committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Trial Chamber IX made its decision after it received submissions from the defense and the prosecution.
The defense filed a request on September 17th asking that their experts be allowed to testify between November 18th and November 22nd, which is when they will be available to do so.
The defense also asked the experts be allowed to testify jointly, a request the chamber rejected.
In its filing, the defense only referred to their experts as D-41 and D-42.
Describing the upcoming evidence of the defense mental health experts as of “high importance,” the chamber said in an October 1 decision that these experts will testify between November 18 and November 22.
According to a statement by the International Justice Monitor ,the chamber also decided the prosecution may call a rebuttal witness to testify on either November 25th or November 26th .
The judges said that if the defense so wishes they could call a rejoinder witness to testify on either November 28 or November 29.
Part of the case the defense team is presenting is that Ongwen is not responsible for the crimes he has been charged with because he had a mental illness or defect during the period he is alleged to have committed those crimes.
Last year, the prosecution called two psychiatrists and a psychologist to show the court that Ongwen can be held responsible for the crimes he has been charged with.
Ongwen has been charged with 70 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity he allegedly committed as a commander in the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) between July 2002 and December 2005 in northern Uganda. He has pleaded not guilty to all counts.
.CN/abj/APA