Court convicts Kwoyelo of 44 charges

 
The judges also dismissed counts 14, 17, 20, 22, 23, 24, 26, 45, 502, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 88, and 93, a total of 31 counts.

The ICD sitting in Gulu also acquitted Kwoyelo of three charges that it found lacked evidence to incriminate him.
 
For example, in charge counts 1, 2, and 3, the judges disagreed with an earlier advice of court assessors to convict Kwoyelo on the counts since there was no evidence implicating him in the offences.
The other judges on the panel ar Duncan Gaswaga, Stephen Mubiru and Andrew Bashaija.
 
In reaction, Mr Caleb Alaka, the defense’s lead counsel asked court to give them more time to prepare and engage other stakeholders before he’s sentenced.
 
“We shall therefore pray that within the time court will grant us, the court orders that the probation officer of Amuru district makes a report on the social background of the convict, we shall request for an order that UPS gives a report on conduct or how the convict has been in all these 16 years,” Mr Alaka asked court.

Mr Robert Mackay, one of the victims’ counsel said, “We equally need time so as to make our observations as far as sentencing in concerned. We need time to reach out to the victims. We also need the victims’ impact assessment report, especially on those counts which impact on the victims.”
 
In response, Justice Elubu said the status conference will be held in the next one week before a final decision on when Kwoyelo wil be sentenced.

“You will have the detailed judgement by Friday this week, the status conference will be convened early next week not later than Tuesday, Justice Mubiru said.

 
Kwoyelo case
 Kwoyelo’s case had 53 prosecution witnesses and four defence witnesses, including legal experts whose roles were to handle the large volumes of information regarding the case.
 
Kwoyelo was arrested on March 3, 2009; however, his prosecution has since been dragging. According to Ms Juliet Harty Hatanga, the ICD Deputy Registrar, Kwoyelo’s trial kept dragging due to numerous hurdles, including limited resources and the COVID-19 lockdown.
 

In April this year, Kwoyelo kicked off his defence submission before the court, in which he declined to plead guilty while detailing to the judges why he should be acquitted.
 
Kwoyelo said that during the period within which the crimes for which he had been charged were committed, he held the position of the army’s chief of medical services, which forbade him from engaging in operations and attacks but limited him to work within the army’s treatment units only.
 
Kwoyelo was charged with 78 counts, including aggravated robbery, murder as a crime against humanity, attempted murder, imprisonment as a crime against humanity, and kidnapping with intent to murder, among others.
 

Kwoyelo was one of the commanders of the LRA. He was captured by the Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) soldiers in Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in March 2009.
 
Subsequently, he was brought back to Uganda and detained at Luzira Upper Prison.
While at Luzira on January 12, 2010, Kwoyelo made a declaration before the officer in charge of the prison, renouncing rebellion and seeking amnesty.
 
In 2022, the Constitutional Court ruled in Kwoyelo’s favor since he had renounced rebellion before ordering his release.
 
However, he was re-arrested, with the Supreme Court overturning the Constitutional Court’s decision before ordering his trial before the High Court.