page_title: Thomas Lubanga Dyilo
section_title: Trial
hierarchical_section_title: Thomas Lubanga Dyilo / Trial
caption_attribution_description: English: The building of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands Deutsch: Das Gebäude des Internationalen Strafgerichtshofes in Den Haag, Niederlande
context_page_description: Thomas Lubanga Dyilo is a convicted war criminal from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the first person ever convicted by the International Criminal Court. He founded and led the Union of Congolese Patriots and was a key player in the Ituri conflict. Rebels under his command have been accused of massive human rights violations, including ethnic massacres, murder, torture, rape, mutilation, and forcibly conscripting child soldiers.
  On 17 March 2006, Lubanga became the first person arrested under a warrant issued by the ICC. His trial, for the war crime of "conscripting and enlisting children under the age of fifteen years and using them to participate actively in hostilities," began on 26 January 2009, and he was found guilty on 14 March 2012, and faced a sentence of up to 30 years. On 10 July 2012, Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court sentenced Lubanga to a total period of 14 years of imprisonment, also ordering that the time from Lubanga's surrender to the ICC in 2006 until the sentencing day should be deducted from the 14-year term, which means he will spend 6 fewer years in prison.
context_section_description: In March 2004, the Congolese government authorised the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate and prosecute "crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court allegedly committed anywhere in the territory of the DRC since the entry into force of the Rome Statute, on 1 July 2002." On 10 February 2006, a Pre-Trial Chamber of the ICC found that there were reasonable grounds to believe that Lubanga bore individual criminal responsibility for the war crime of "conscripting and enlisting children under the age of fifteen years and using them to participate actively in hostilities", and issued a sealed warrant for his arrest.
  On 17 March 2006, Lubanga became the first person ever arrested under an ICC arrest warrant, when the Congolese authorities arrested him and transferred him into ICC custody. He was flown to the Hague, where he has been held in the ICC detention centre since 17 March 2006. Before embarking the plane, Lubanga wept openly. As of January 2009, he is one of four people being detained by the ICC, including two rebels who fought against Lubanga in the Ituri conflict: Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui. His trial opened on 26 January 2009.
  On 14 March 2012 Lubanga was found guilty of abducting boys and girls under the age of 15 and forcing them to fight in a war in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2002 and 2003. He faced a maximum sentence of 30 years when sentenced in July 2012.
caption: The former seat of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, where Lubanga stood trial.
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