Ugandan warlord Dominic Ongwen has lost his appeal against a heavy penalty imposed by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for his war crimes.

On Monday, the ICC’s Appeals Chamber upheld the Trial Chamber’s judgement ordering Ongwen to pay $57 million in reparations to the victims of his crimes against humanity and war crimes in northern Uganda.

The Appeals Chamber ruled that the Trial Chamber’s decision not to disclose the names of the victims to the defence was justified on security grounds and did not unduly affect the defence’s right to conduct a meaningful review of the victims’ testimonies.

The Appeals Chamber also found that there was no error in rejecting the defence’s argument regarding the alleged duplication of victims’ claims before both the Ugandan courts and the ICC.

The Appeals Chamber noted that the compensation discussed before national tribunals was different from the reparations awarded by the ICC. It concluded that the defence had failed to explain how the Acholi traditional mechanisms should be incorporated into the reparation system under the ICC’s legal texts and how such incorporation would affect the scope of Ongwen’s liability for reparations.

The $57 million collective community-based reparations focused on rehabilitation and symbolic/satisfactory measures, consisting of collective rehabilitation programmes, as well as a symbolic award of $822 to each eligible victim, and other symbolic community measures.

Ongwen and some of the victims’ legal representatives were allowed to participate in the hearing remotely.

Besides Bossa, the other judges were Tomoko Akane, Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza, Gocha Lordkipanidze and Erdenebalsuren Damdin.

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