Alleged crimes (non-exhaustive list)
The warrant of arrest was issued on 8 July 2005 and unsealed on 13 October 2005. Ongwen is in the Court's custody.
Dominic Ongwen is allegedly responsible for seven counts of crimes allegedly committed on or about 20 May 2004 at the Lukodi IDP Camp in the Gulu District, Uganda, being three counts of crimes against humanity: murder, enslavement, inhumane acts of inflicting serious bodily injury and suffering; and four counts of war crimes: murder, cruel treatment of civilians, intentionally directing an attack against a civilian population, and pillaging.
In issuing the warrant of arrest, Pre-Trial Chamber II found that there are reasonable grounds to believe that, during the period from 1 July 2002 to end 2005, the LRA, an armed group, allegedly carried out an insurgency against the Government of Uganda and the Ugandan Army (also known as the Uganda People's Defence Force - UPDF - and local defence units - LDUs).
There are reasonable grounds to believe that the LRA had been directing attacks against both the UPDF and LDUs and against civilian populations, and that, in pursuing its goals, the LRA had engaged in a cycle of violence and established a pattern of "brutalization of civilians". This had been carried out by acts including murder, abduction, sexual enslavement, mutilation, and mass burnings of houses and looting of camp settlements. Civilians, including children, are believed to have been abducted and forcibly "recruited" as fighters, porters and sex slaves to serve the LRA and to contribute to attacks against the Ugandan army and civilian communities.
On 21 December 2015, the Prosecutor charged Dominic Ongwen with crimes in addition to those set out in the warrant of arrest: a total of seventy counts. The additional charges related to attacks on the Pajule IDP camp, the Odek IDP camp and the Abok IDP camp. The counts brought against the suspect in the context of these attacks include attacks against the civilian population, murder, attempted murder, torture, cruel treatment, other inhumane acts, enslavement, outrages upon personal dignity, pillaging, destruction of property, and persecution. The expanded charges against Dominic Ongwen also include sexual and gender-based crimes committed from 2002 to 2005 in Sinia Brigade – forced marriage, rape, torture, sexual slavery, and enslavement – and the conscription and use of children under the age of 15 to participate actively in hostilities from 2002 to 2005, in Sinia Brigade.