Defense lawyer casts Ugandan war crimes defendant as victim

A lawyer defending an alleged commander in Uganda’s shadowy Lord’s Resistance Army accused of crimes including murder, sexual slavery and using child soldiers is casting him as a victim of the rebel group’s brutal leader, Joseph Kony.

In his opening statement at the International Criminal Court trial of Dominic Ongwen, defense lawyer Joseph Akwenyu told judges that Ongwen was abducted as a 9-year-old child, plunged into an environment of extreme brutality and effectively stripped of his free will.

Akwenyu said Tuesday that Ongwen “did not possess a mind of his own save for the survival instinct” he developed to navigate the harsh conditions in the LRA.

Prosecutors say Ongwen is a former child soldier who turned into a murderous commander.

Kony, also indicted by the court, remains at large.