A former commander of the Lord's Resistance Army rebel group has been convicted of dozens of crimes against humanity in a key moment of justice for many in Uganda who suffered decades of its brutal insurgency.
The long-awaited verdict in the trial of Thomas Kwoyelo was delivered Tuesday by a panel of the High Court that sat in Gulu, the northern city where the LRA once was active. It was the first atrocity case to be tried under a special division of the High Court that focuses on international crimes.
Kwoyelo faced charges including murder, pillaging, enslavement, imprisonment, rape and cruelty. He was convicted on 44 of the 78 counts he faced for crimes committed between 1992 and 2005.
It was not immediately clear when he would be sentenced.
Kwoyelo, whose trial began in 2019, had been in detention since 2009 as Ugandan authorities tried to figure out how to dispense justice in a way that was fair and credible. Human Rights Watch described his trial as "a rare opportunity for justice for victims of the two-decade war between" Ugandan troops and the LRA.
