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A30 world news
Diamars 15 Februari 2022

Lawyer urges ICC to acquit Ugandan war criminal on appeal

(AP) — A lawyer for a Joseph Kony. 90 grounds of appeal alleging
Ugandan rebel command- Judges in May sentenced legal, factual and procedural
er serving a 25-year sen- Ongwen to 25 years for a errors in the original verdict,
tence for dozens of war litany of crimes that include Presiding Judge Luz del Car-
crimes and crimes against murder, rape, forced mar- men Ibáñez Carranza said as
humanity told appeals riage, forced pregnancy and the hearing opened Monday.
judges Monday that his using child soldiers.
client was found guilty by Prosecution counsel Helen
an International Crimi- But Odongo is seeking his Brady said there was little in
nal Court trail panel that acquittal and release, argu- the defense appeal that was
cherry-picked evidence to ing Ongwen did not get a fair not already ruled on during
ensure he was convicted. hearing. the trial.
Prosecution lawyers re- “The trial court did not base “Mr. Ongwen has largely re-
sponded that Dominic On- its decision and judgment on peated his trial arguments,
gwen was “properly and fairly the entire proceedings. The but he fails to show that the
convicted” after an exhaustive Trial Chamber decided to trial chamber erred in law, in
trial that heard evidence from cherry-pick what was help- fact, or procedurally. His ap- following his abduction he Uganda in 2005, the rebels
179 prosecution and defense ful in making sure that they peal should be dismissed and had essentially been enslaved scattered across parts of cen-
witnesses and assessed more attained conviction,” Odon- his convictions upheld,” she by Kony. tral Africa.
than 5,000 items of evidence. go told a five-judge appeals said.
panel that is expected to take “He provided slave labor Kony remains on the run
Defense lawyer Krispus Ay- months to issue its decision Throughout his trial, On- and therefore he should not despite concerted efforts to
ena Odongo was speaking after public hearings this gwen’s defense lawyers por- be punished twice,” he told track him down. His case
on the first day of an appeal week. trayed him as a victim of the judges. gained international no-
hearing at the global court for LRA’s brutality — abducted toriety in 2012 when the
Ongwen who was convicted “It appears that the court on his way to school as a Founded by Kony, the Lord’s U.S.-based advocacy group
last year on 61 charges for his came with a predetermined 9-year-old and traumatized Resistance Army began as Invisible Children made a
role as a senior commander in mind to convict Dominic by his experiences in the an antigovernment rebellion video highlighting the LRA’s
the Lord’s Resistance Army, Ongwen,” he added. group’s violent insurgency. in Uganda. When the mili- crimes that went viral.
the shadowy Ugandan rebel tary forced the group out of
group led by fugitive warlord Ongwen’s lawyers have listed Odongo said Monday that

Poland prepares to accept Ukrainian refugees in case of war

(AP) — Poland, the larg- sions in Ukraine, Poland says gee, that opposition is largely including the possibility of minister, Viktor Orban,
est European Union na- it is for now keeping its dip- based on not wanting to take large numbers of refugees. warned Saturday that a Rus-
tion to border Ukraine, is lomatic operations in place in large numbers of people of sian invasion of Ukraine
making preparations to in case they are needed to different religious and racial “In this worst-case scenar- could send hundreds of
accept Ukrainian refugees facilitate a large-scale exit of backgrounds. io, we are not talking about thousands of Ukrainian refu-
in the event of another Ukrainians. hundreds or thousands, but gees fleeing across the border
Russian attack on that Ukrainians — who like Poles much larger numbers,” Przy- into his country.
country. But the Polish Poland, which has welcomed are a Slavic people with a dacz said on Radio Plus.
government hopes that large numbers of Ukrainian similar language and customs Meanwhile, Slovakia is also
worst-case scenario can be economic migrants in recent — have filled gaps in the la- He added that the Interior preparing for a wave of refu-
averted. years, particularly after Rus- bor market and have been Ministry has been prepar- gees in the case of a conflict.
sia’s incursions into Ukraine largely welcomed in Poland ing “internal scenarios, in- The government has pre-
Similar preparations are be- in 2014, has been making in recent years. frastructure and plans” for pared a plan what to do in
ing made across the region, plans for weeks to accept ref- many weeks. such a scenario, but it is clas-
particularly in those nations ugees if it comes to that, said Przydacz said in a radio in- sified.
which share borders with Marcin Przydacz, a deputy terview on Monday that Po- The plans would include
Ukraine. foreign minister. land hopes the situation in housing refugees in hostels, “According to the existing
Ukraine won’t escalate, but dormitories, sports facilities studies and analysis, I can say
As other countries draw While Poland has an image that the country was pre- and other venues. that even a limited Russian
down their diplomatic mis- of being staunchly anti-refu- paring for any possibility, military attack on Ukrainian
Local officials, including territory would mean tens of
town mayors, have been thousands of refugees cross-
asked to draw up reports of ing our border,” Slovakian
what facilities they could Defense Minister Jaroslav
make available, according Nad said.
to Krzysztof Kosiński, the
mayor of Ciechanow, a Pol- Nad said those fleeing a war
ish town near the border with would receive refugee status.
Ukraine, and the secretary of
the Association of Polish Cit- “From the European conti-
ies. nent’s perspective, the cur-
rent situation is the most
Ukraine, which is bordered dangerous since World War
by Belarus to the north and II,” Nad said.
Russia to the east, also shares
borders with the EU nations Czech Interior Minister Vit
of Poland, Slovakia, Hungary Rakusan has offered to send
and Romania, as well as the police officers to help Slova-
non-EU state of Moldova. kia in the case of such a con-
flict.
Hungary’s nationalist prime