15.04.11 - ICC/ LUBANGA - CLOSING ARGUMENTS IN THOMAS LUBANGA TRIAL SCHEDULED FOR AUGUST

Arusha, April 15, 2011(FH) - Closing arguments in the case of commander-in-chief of the Patriotic Forces for the Liberation of Congo, Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, will be presented before the International Criminal Court (ICC) starting August 25, 2011.

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According to ICC statement, the session would proceed on August 26, 2011. "The parties and participants should be prepared at the closing hearings, on 25 and 26 August, to entertain questions from the Trial".

The former Congolese rebel leader is accused of having committed, as a co-perpetrator, war crimes of conscripting children under the age of 15 years into the Patriotic Forces for the Liberation of the Congo (FPLC), and using them to participate actively in hostilities in Ituri, a district of the eastern province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, between September 2002 and August 2003.

He was arrested and jailed in Kinshasa in March 2005. He was then transferred to The Hague on March 17, 2006. His trial started at the ICC on January 26, 2009.

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