In brief: Ugandan rebel leader faces trial at The Hague

KAMPALA, Uganda – Uganda’s military said Tuesday the Lord’s Resistance Army rebel commander who surrendered to American troops last week will be taken to The Hague for trial.

Dominic Ongwen is now in U.S. custody in Obo, a town in eastern Central African Republic, the country where he surrendered on Jan. 6, Uganda army spokesman Lt. Col. Paddy Ankunda said.

“Finally it has been decided. Domnic (sic) Ongwen will be tried at the ICC in the Hague,” Ankunda tweeted. The United Nations, African Union, Uganda and United States consulted on the decision to try him at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf confirmed that Ongwen would be delivered to the ICC. Harf said the U.S. would soon hand over Ongwen to a Ugandan contingent of the African Union’s task force. He will then be transferred to The Hague.

The LRA, led by Joseph Kony, began in Uganda in the 1980s as a tribal uprising.

Ongwen, Kony and three others who have reportedly since died were charged by the ICC. The court’s warrant of arrest for Ongwen lists seven counts of alleged individual criminal responsibility including crimes against humanity, enslavement, murder and inhumane acts of inflicting serious bodily injury.

Mubarak retrial ordered by court

Egypt’s highest court on Tuesday set aside the sole conviction remaining against former President Hosni Mubarak and ordered a retrial for him on embezzlement charges, setting the stage for the onetime dictator to potentially soon walk free.

The timing of a possible release of the longtime autocrat was left uncertain – perhaps deliberately so. The Court of Cassation’s order for a new trial raised the possibility that Mubarak would not be freed until that proceeding was formally convened, at which time the charges could be dismissed anew by the lower court.

Even before the high court’s ruling, it was expected that if Mubarak’s conviction had been upheld, he would likely be released soon anyway because his time already served exceeds the three-year sentence handed down on the embezzlement charges.