The defense team for Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga Tuesday said secrecy clauses made the trial inherently unfair, adding it struck a blow to the notion of transparent international justice.
All but two of the 93 alleged victims of Lubanga taking part in the trial were allowed to do so under the cloak of anonymity and questioning is by their own agreement, said defense attorney Catherine Mabille.
She claims this use of anonymity and the use of a secrecy clause for the majority of the evidence make the trial unfair, reports said.
“How can we have a fair trial under (these) conditions?” she complained.
She also took issue with exclusion from most of the pre-trial hearings, which she notes were conducted away from public scrutiny.
“If we do things this way, international criminal justice will become very secretive,” Mabille told the judges.
Lubanga filed a not-guilty plea to conscripting child soldiers to fight in his Union of Congolese Patriots in a civil war that raged from Sept. 2002 to Aug. 2003. International human rights groups said conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo have claimed more than 60,000 lives.
The Lubanga trial is the first-ever for the International Criminal Court, which came into force in July 2002.
