The International Crimes Division of the High Court (CID) on Tuesday afternoon convicted former Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) commander of war crimes and crimes against humanity in a landmark case in Uganda.
The Ugandan Military captured Kwoyelo in 2009 in the jungles of North Eastern Congo. He has been in pre-trial detention ever since, and his case has crept through the Ugandan court system.
Until Rights Group Human Rights Watch has previously criticised the delays in Kwoyelo's case, and says in general there has been limited accountability for crimes committed during the 25-year conflict, including abuses by Ugandan state forces.
Thomas Kwoyelo, who faced 78 counts related to crimes committed during the LRA’s bloody two-decade rebellion, had been waiting for years behind bars for a verdict in the landmark case.
Kwoyelo who denied all 78 charges that were brought against him was found guilty on 44 counts including murder, kidnap and pillaging.
Of the remaining 34 charges, Kwoyelo was acquitted of three murder charges and 31 other charges were dismissed.
Kwoyelo becomes the first LRA commander to be tried by a Ugandan court, marking a watershed moment for the country's judicial system.
He has spent the last 14 years in detention, which analysts partly attribute to the scale and complexity of the case.
Joseph Kony formed the LRA in Uganda more than two decades ago, and claimed to be fighting to install a government based on the Bible's 10 Commandments.
The group was notorious for chopping off people's limbs and abducting children to use as soldiers and sex slaves. Hundreds of thousands of people were forced from their homes by the conflict.
LRA leader Kony is wanted by the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) but has not been caught despite several attempts to do so.
In 2021 the ICC convicted Dominic Ongwen, another senior LRA commander, of war crimes including rape, sexual enslavement, child abduction, torture and murder. He was subsequently sentenced to 25 years in jail.
