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TRIAL: Thomas Lubanga

LAWYERS DEFENDING Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga, who is facing war crime charges in The Hague, have said they will ask judges to dismiss his case because they have evidence prosecution witnesses were coached or were not even former child soldiers.

Lead defence counsel Catherine Mabille said the defence has 16 witnesses who would show that all the prosecution witnesses, presented as former child soldiers, were bogus, AllAfrica.com said.

“The defence intend to show that six of them were never child soldiers, the seventh lied about his age and the conditions in which he enrolled, and the eighth never belonged to the UPC [Union of Congolese Patriots]," she said.

Lubanga, said to be the UPC’s founder, is accused of enlisting, conscripting and using child soldiers in armed conflict during 2002 and 2003. But his lawyers said he did not participate in this.

Published: 08 February 2010
Issue: 1409

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