The Worldwide Legal Court docket confirmed 39 expenses in opposition to Kony, paving the way in which for a trial if he’s ever captured.
Revealed On 7 Nov 2025
Judges on the Worldwide Legal Court docket (ICC) have confirmed warfare crimes and crimes in opposition to humanity expenses in opposition to Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony, practically 20 years after the court docket first issued a warrant for his arrest.
Kony, who stays at giant, faces 39 expenses, together with homicide, sexual enslavement and rape, making him the ICC’s longest-standing fugitive.
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Judges from the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber III stated there are “substantial grounds to consider that Mr Kony is criminally liable for the crimes” dedicated in northern Uganda between 2002 and 2005, when he commanded the Lord’s Resistance Military (LRA).
Apart from crimes dedicated by his rebels, the judges stated Kony is also held liable for 10 crimes he allegedly dedicated himself, linked to 2 ladies he compelled to develop into his wives.
“Mr Kony issued standing orders to assault civilian settlements, kill and mistreat civilians, loot and destroy their property and abduct kids and ladies to be built-in into the LRA,” the judges stated of their ruling.
The ruling marks the primary time the ICC has confirmed charges in a suspect’s absence, that means the case can formally proceed to trial if Kony is ever captured. Below ICC guidelines, a full trial can’t start with out the defendant’s presence in court docket.
Prosecutors stated efforts to trace down and arrest Kony, now 64, are ongoing.
The ICC’s resolution adopted a three-day listening to in September through which prosecutors and victims’ legal professionals offered proof and testimony with out Kony current – an uncommon process that set the stage for Thursday’s ruling.
Years of investigations and witness accounts fashioned the premise of the choice.
Rising from northern Uganda’s Acholi area within the late Eighties, Kony’s LRA mixed Christian mysticism with an armed insurrection in opposition to President Yoweri Museveni’s authorities.
The United Nations estimates about 100,000 folks have been killed and a couple of.5 million displaced throughout the battle.
Even after being pushed out of Uganda, LRA fighters launched lethal raids throughout South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic, burning villages, looting communities and abducting tens of 1000’s of kids – the kidnapped boys compelled to battle and women compelled into sexual slavery.
Kony got here again into worldwide focus in 2012 when a viral video about his crimes led to the #Kony2012 marketing campaign on social media.
Regardless of the worldwide consideration and years of army operations to apprehend Kony, he stays at giant.
