The Appeals Chamber gives suspensive effect to the appeal against the decision on the release of Thomas Lubanga
Situation: Democratic Republic of the Congo
Case: The Prosecutor v. Thomas Lubanga Dyilo
Today, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) granted the suspensive effect to the Prosecution’s appeal against Trial Chamber I oral decision to release Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, dated 15 July, 2010. Therefore the accused will remain under custody of the ICC pending the final decision on the appeal.
Trial Chamber I had ordered the release of the accused following its decision, dated 8 July, 2010, imposing an unconditional stay on the proceedings of the case The Prosecutor v. Thomas Lubanga Dyilo. According to Trial Chamber I, an accused cannot be held in preventative custody on a speculative basis, namely that at some stage in the future the proceedings may be resurrected. Prosecution filed an appeal against this oral decision and submitted an urgent application for suspensive effect of the appeal on 16 July, 2010.
Appeals Chamber found that an immediate implementation of the order to release Mr Lubanga Dyilo could render the resumption of the trial impossible, should the Appeals Chamber later find in favour of the Prosecutor’s appeals against the decision to stay proceedings and the oral decision to release the accused. In these circumstances, his release could potentially defeat the purpose of these appeals. The Appeals Chamber therefore suspended the implementation of the release of Mr Lubanga Dyilo pending the determination of this appeal.
Thomas Lubanga Dyilo is accused of having committed, as co-perpetrator, war crimes of enlisting and conscripting of children under the age of 15 years into the Forces patriotiques pour la libération du Congo (Patriotic Forces for the Liberation of Congo), and using them to participate actively in hostilities in Ituri, a district of the eastern province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), between September 2002 and August 2003.
The situation was referred to the Court by the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in April 2004. The Prosecutor v. Thomas Lubanga Dyilo is one of the cases that arose from the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; others are The Prosecutor v. Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui and The Prosecutor v. Bosco Ntaganda. Bosco Ntaganda remains at large. Investigations are ongoing in the DRC.
For further information please contact Sonia Robla, Head of Public Information and Documentation Section at +31 (0)70 515-8089 or +31 (0) 646448726 or at [email protected]