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Last Updated: Oct 28th, 2008 - 17:57:18 |
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The International Criminal Court said on Monday it might have to release the first suspect to come before it because of concerns that a fair trial was no longer possible.
The trial of Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga was to start on June 23, a historic step for the world's first permanent war crimes court in The Hague.
But on Monday, the court halted the trial, saying the prosecution had abused a provision which allows attorneys to receive information which is not for use at trial and which they may keep confidential. Lawyers may use the information to search for other evidence which they can present at trial.
The court said the prosecution's actions meant that "a significant body of exculpatory evidence which would otherwise have been disclosed to the accused is to be withheld from him".
"The consequence ... has been that the trial process has been ruptured to such a degree that it is now impossible to piece together the constituent elements of a fair trial," the court said.
"This is the exact opposite of the proper use of the provision," it said. "The prosecution's approach constitutes a wholesale and serious abuse."
It scheduled a hearing for June 24 to consider Lubanga's release.
ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said he was confident Lubanga would still face trial.
Asked on the sidelines of a European Union meeting in Luxembourg whether the people of Congo should be worried, he told Reuters: "They will receive justice. Lubanga will be on trial."
Lubanga, who founded and led a militia in Congo's eastern Ituri district, was arrested in 2006 and is accused of enlisting and conscripting children under the age of 15 from 2002 to 2003. He has denied the charges.
Geraldine Mattioli, advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, said: "My impression is that the only thing that would salvage it is for the U.N. and other sources to let the judges see the potentially exculpatory information."
The judges could then decide whether the information needed to be turned over to the defense or the relevant charges dropped if that was not possible, allowing the trial to proceed.
"This is the only way that we will have justice, if the rights of the accused are scrupulously respected," she said.
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