\n Former Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga denied on Friday he interfered with witnesses in a case before the International Criminal Court, as he pleaded for a reduction of his 14-year sentence.\n<\/p>\n
\n In its first-ever conviction, the Hague-based ICC in 2012 sentenced Lubanga to 14 years in jail for using child soldiers in his rebel army in the conflict-ridden and vast central African country.\n<\/p>\n
\n Lubanga, 54, subsequently appealed the sentence -- which included time already spent behind bars since his transfer to the ICC's detention unit in 2006 -- but his request was turned down.\n<\/p>\n
\n The former Hema ethnic militia commander was back in court on Friday to argue for a reduction after having served two-thirds of his sentence.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"At this stage I'm thinking with great emotion of my family and my children,\" Lubanga told the judges as his lawyers asked the court to review his time behind bars.\n<\/p>\n
\n Lubanga's legal team asked for early release, stating their client had cooperated with the ICC throughout his trial.\n<\/p>\n
\n They stressed that \"part from exceptions, convicts are systematically released once they have served two-thirds of their sentence\" in international justice.\n<\/p>\n
\n Prosecutors asked judges to uphold Lubanga's jail time, saying the ex-militia leader had not cooperated and accused him of interfering, from his prison cell, with witnesses in the case of his fellow militia commander Bosco Ntaganda, nicknamed \"The Terminator.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n Ntaganda's war crimes trial is set to start on September 2.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"At no time did I have any inappropriate contact with anyone,\" Lubanga told the judges.\n<\/p>\n
\n Referring to violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo's gold-rich northeastern Ituri region, Lubanga said \"I sincerely wish to make myself useful to all those who suffered.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n \"For this I'm ready to devote to it, when the moment comes, my newfound freedom,\" he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n Lubanga was sentenced to 14 years for war crimes, particularly for abducting children as young as 11 and forcing them to fight and commit atrocities in 2002-03 during a bitter ethnic conflict that gripped the region.\n<\/p>\n
\n Rights groups said some 60,000 people were killed in mineral-rich Ituri between 1999 and 2006.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga denied on Friday he interfered with witnesses in a case before the International Criminal Court, as he pleaded for a reduction of his 14-year sentence. In its first-ever conviction, the Hague-based ICC in 2012 sentenced Lubanga to 14 years in jail for using child soldiers in his rebel army in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-1716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n