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AMSTERDAM, Netherlands – The International Criminal Court cleared the way Tuesday to begin its first trial in January, in the case of an alleged Congolese warlord charged with recruiting child soldiers and sending them into battle.
The court in The Hague lifted its suspension of the case against Thomas Lubanga after the prosecution submitted to demands to hand over confidential evidence to the judges that it had received from the United Nations.
The case is a landmark on several scores: Lubanga is the first defendant brought before the court since it was created in 2002 as the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal, and it is the first trial to deal exclusively with the use of child soldiers.
The judges were on the verge of throwing out the case last July and had ordered Lubanga's release, arguing he could not get a fair trial because some of the material being withheld by the prosecution could help Lubanga's defence.
The UN and other agencies in Congo had sought to keep the information private to protect its field workers from potential retribution.
Appeals judges last month agreed that Lubanga's trial would be unfair unless all the evidence was disclosed, at least to the judges if not to the defence.
After reading the material, the three-judge tribunal ruled Tuesday the trial could go ahead, and set a provisional starting date for next Jan. 26.
Presiding Judge Adrian Fulford ordered the prosecutors to deliver evidence to defence attorneys within two days, although some of it would be censored. He said the judges were aware the defence team had been "significantly hampered" by its inability to see all the documents.
A decision was due later Tuesday on whether Lubanga should be released until the trial begins.
Defence lawyers urged the court to provisionally free Lubanga, saying he could not flee since he had no passport and was subject to a UN travel ban.
Prosecutors argued that Lubanga, if released, might find allies among the large Congolese exile populations in Belgium, Germany or France, and either hide or find his way back to Congo to evade trial.
Lubanga denies recruiting and conscripting children under age 15 to fight in the Ituri region of eastern Congo during 2002-03, when thousands of people were killed, maimed or raped. He has been in detention in The Hague since March 2006.
