DRCongo to take part in hearing
2009-05-29 10:42
The Hague - The Democratic Republic of Congo's justice minister will take part in an International Criminal Court hearing next week into an ex-militia leader's challenge to be tried in The Hague, the tribunal said on Thursday.
"The Minister of Justice of the Congo, Emmanuel-Janvier Luzolo, will come with two other high-profile representatives of the Congolese judicial authority," ICC spokesperson Sonia Robla said.
"They will participate in the hearing on Monday, they will be heard. The judges will give them the possibility to explain their views."
The hearing concerns a challenge by former Congolese militia leader Germain Katanga to being tried in The Hague.
He had filed a motion in February asking the ICC to rule the case inadmissible, arguing that the ICC could only intervene if national courts were unwilling or unable to try war crimes suspects.
Pre-trial chamber
In fact, the DRC had conducted investigations against him, said Katanga, and whether he was convicted or not was irrelevant.
A public hearing will be held in the pre-trial chamber on Monday to canvass the issue with all parties.
Katanga and co-accused Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui will go on trial before the ICC on September 24.
They are charged with having committed war crimes, including using child soldiers and attacking civilians, as well as murder, rape and sexual slavery as crimes against humanity.
Charges against the men arise from a joint attack on the village of Bororo, in the Congo's mineral-rich Ituri region in February 2003, by the two groups they are alleged to have led.
- SAPA