- 20 years since the ICC issued a warrant of arrest against Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) will make history tomorrow, September 9, 2025, when judges start hearing the first trial in absentia of a man who grew up in eastern Uganda serving as an altar boy.
- ICC: “On 29 October 2024, Pre-Trial Chamber III decided that all the requirements to hold a confirmation of charges hearing in the absence of the suspect Joseph Kony were met.”
- Joseph Kony unleashed one of the world’s brutal campaign against a government leading to the killing of 100,000 people and abduction of 60,000 children in Uganda.
From heinous acts of rape, murder, pillaging, displacement, and the recruitment of children into soldiers, the charges against fugitive Joseph Kony paint a portrait of unimaginable atrocities.
Now nearly 20 years since the International Criminal Court issued warrants of arrest against Joseph Kony, the runaway leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) will make history tomorrow, September 9, 2025, when a team of ICC judges start hearing the first trial in absentia of a man who grew up in eastern Uganda serving as an altar boy.
The ICC’s pre-trial chamber III, which is comprised of Judges Althea Violet Alexis-Windsor, Presiding Judge, Iulia Antoanella Motoc and Haykel Ben Mahfoudh, will hear a total of 39 counts against Kony, a fugitive who has been facing a warrant of arrest since 8th July, 2005.
In the 1980s, Joseph Kony unleashed one of the world’s brutal campaign against a government leading to the killing of 100,000 people and abduction of 60,000 children in Uganda, a conflict that swept across borders engulfing populations in South Sudan and in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Elusive hunt on Joseph Kony by U.S. special forces
While the push to arrest Joseph Kony has been on top gear, including a 2012-2017 operation led by U.S. special forces, the LRA leader remains at large, possibly hiding in the jungles of DRC, a scenario that is now forcing the ICC judges to make history by hearing in absentia the 39 counts of crime against the warlord starting Tuesday, this week.
“Today, 12 December 2024, Pre-Trial Chamber III of the International Criminal Court (“ICC” or “the Court”) scheduled the confirmation of charges hearing in the case The Prosecutor v. Joseph Kony to commence on 9 September 2025, in the absence of the suspect,” a note posted on the ICC website notes in its opening statement.
It adds, “The Rome Statute allows for the confirmation of charges proceedings at the Pre-Trial stage in the absence of the suspect, under specific conditions. In this case, the Chamber found that (i) Mr Kony is a person who ‘cannot be found’ within the meaning of article 61(2)(b) of the ICC Rome Statute; (ii) all reasonable steps to secure his appearance and to inform him of the charges and the date of the confirmation of charges hearing, initially scheduled for 15 October 2024 and now set to commence on 9 September 2025, have been taken, and (iii) there is cause to hold the confirmation of charges hearing in absentia.”
“On 29 October 2024, Pre-Trial Chamber III decided that all the requirements to hold a confirmation of charges hearing in the absence of the suspect Joseph Kony were met,” it added.
Read also: Record $48.3 billion in deals signed at Intra-African Trade Fair 2025 in Algiers
Government on the 10 commandments
According to the ICC, Tuesdays proceedings aim at determining if there is enough evidence gathered by the office of the prosecutor that Kony committed each of the crimes he’s sued against.
The court noted that in the event the charges are confirmed, Kony’s case can only progress to the trial phase if the LRA leader is present before the court.
In his decades long war against President Museveni’s government, Kony sought to establish a new administration drawing his governance from the 10 commandments of the Bible even as he unleashed brutal hit on his victims.
From Gulu in Uganda to parts of the DRC and South Sudan, the UN says tens of thousands of children were forced to hack their loved ones to death, while others were forced to bite their kin to the death. For girls abducted during his raids in villages, they ended up as sex slaves in his camps across the jungle.
Some of those who escaped his vice-like grip on detainees have shared horror stories of shocking rituals, including the drinking of his victim’s blood, and the chopping of limps of his victims.
