The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday would deliver its verdict in the trial of Dominic Ongwen.
Ongwen, a former Ugandan rebel commander was accused of 70 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Ongwen went on trial in December 2016, accused of murder, rape, torture, sexual slavery and use of child soldiers between 2002 and 2004.
He allegedly committed the crimes while he was a commander of the Lord’s Resistance Army in northern Uganda.
He, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges at the start of proceedings in December 2016 and has since continued to deny all accusations.
Rights group say the LRA abducted tens of thousands of children for use as soldiers and sexual slaves, killed and maimed thousands of civilians in remote regions of northern Uganda, north-eastern Congo, South Sudan and the Central African Republic during its three-decade insurgency, which ended in 2005.
Thursday will mark the first time The Hague-based ICC has issued a judgement in a case involving the LRA.
Ongwen faces life imprisonment, although sentencing will take place at a later date.
Ongwen was deputy to LRA chief Joseph Kony, who remains a fugitive, Ongwen surrendered in early 2015 after a decade on the run.
Now about 45 years old, Ongwen was also a victim of the LRA.
As a 14-year-old, he had been abducted on his way to school and moulded into a fighter.
The LRA was notorious for kidnapping and coercing children as a means of swelling the ranks of fighters, often using rape and brutality on its youngest members. (dpa/NAN)
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