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Former DRC militia leader found guilty of war crimes by ICC
As he left court flanked by guards, Lubanga nodded and smiled to supporters in the public gallery.
A sentencing hearing will now be scheduled.
Lubanga faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
While the three-judge panel unanimously convicted Lubanga, it also harshly criticized prosecutors for using intermediaries to deal with witnesses in the DRC.
Fulford said three intermediaries “persuaded, encouraged or assisted witnesses to give false evidence”.
However, other witnesses and video of Lubanga speaking to recruits, some of them children, at a training camp provided enough evidence to convict him.
Prosecutors said Lubanga led the Union of Congolese Patriots political group and commanded its armed wing, the Patriotic Forces for the Liberation of Congo, which recruited children – sometimes by force, other times voluntarily – into its ranks to fight in a brutal ethnic conflict in the Ituri region of eastern DRC.
The trial, which began in January 2009, is the first at an international court to focus exclusively on the use of child soldiers and activists say it should send a clear message to armies and rebels around the world that conscripting children breaches international law.
