Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga was convicted Wednesday of kidnapping children from the street and turning them into killers.
STORY: Stop Kony! Barack Speaks On Ruthless Killer Joseph Kony
This is the International Criminal Court’s landmark first judgment 10 years after it was established.
Presiding Judge Adrian Fulford said:
“The prosecution has proved beyond reasonable doubt that Mr. Thomas Lubanga is guilty of the crimes of conscripting and enlisting children under the age of 15 years and using them to participate actively in hostilities.”
Lubanga, wearing an ivory-colored robe and skullcap, sat with his hands clasped in front of him listening to the verdict and showed no emotion as Fulford declared him guilty.
Actress and activist Angelina Jolie watched the entire hearing from the public gallery and said the verdict was a victory for the former child soldiers.
Talking to reporters afterward, Jolie said:
“This is their day – where these children will feel there is no impunity for what happened to them, for what they suffered.”
A sentencing hearing will now be scheduled and Lubanga faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
Judges said Lubanga, “personally used children below the age of 15 as his bodyguards.”
Lubanga led the Union of Congolese Patriots political group and commanded its army, the Patriotic Forces for the Liberation of Congo.
The PLFC recruited children by force, other times voluntarily into its ranks to fight in a brutal ethnic conflict in the Ituri region of eastern Congo.
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.
The United Nations estimates tens of thousands of child soldiers are still fighting in conflicts from Africa to Asia and Latin America.
This is the first conviction of the ICC, which comes off the heels of the highly viewed Kony 2012 video made by Invisible Children, which highlights the case of notorious Ugandan rebel Joseph Kony, the first person indicted by the court who remains a fugitive more than six years later.
