Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Charged New religious movements Messianic / communal movement Northern Uganda · 2025

Joseph Kony / LRA: ICC confirms 29 war-crime and crimes-against-humanity charges in absentia

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Record class

Context only

Evidence status

Charged

Authority role

self-proclaimed prophet, spiritually instructed LRA leader, armed-group commander

Organization

Lord's Resistance Army

Archive classification

This is the archive's application of its published inclusion test. The cited record appears below.

This record is retained as context. The cited evidence documents cultic ideology of impurity, claimed spirit authority and clairvoyance, theocratic claims, forced child recruitment, and severe punishment for disloyalty, but does not establish that spiritual doctrine, practice, or authority materially enabled the harm. The relevant recorded role is self-proclaimed prophet, spiritually instructed LRA leader, and armed-group commander.

  • Prophecy or divine command

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2025-11-06 · confirmation of charges in absentia

    International Criminal Court, Pre-Trial Chamber III. The Chamber confirmed 29 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Confirmation is not a conviction; Kony remains presumed innocent, and a trial cannot proceed unless he appears before the Court.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • cultic ideology of impurity
  • claimed spirit authority and clairvoyance
  • theocratic claims
  • forced child recruitment
  • severe punishment for disloyalty

Cited record

Sources

international court confirmation of charges decision International Criminal Court, The Prosecutor v. Joseph Kony, Decision on the confirmation of charges in absentia, ICC-02/04-01/05-633 (Nov. 6, 2025).

The ICC case register publishes the Pre-Trial Chamber's decision confirming 29 charges against Joseph Kony. The confirmation standard is substantial grounds to believe; it is not a finding of guilt, and Kony remains at large.

united nations finding institutional finding United Nations, Office of the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, 'The Lord's Resistance Army and Children' (June 2, 2012).

The UN describes the LRA's forced recruitment of children and says the group maintained cohesion through violence justified by a cultic ideology of impurity, spiritualism promoting Kony's authority and claimed clairvoyance, and severe punishment for disloyalty.

international court arrest warrant release International Criminal Court, 'Warrant of Arrest unsealed against five LRA Commanders' (Oct. 14, 2005).

The ICC release records the amended warrant, alleged orders to kill, loot and abduct civilians, and the original 33 counts against Kony. Later confirmation proceedings narrowed the charges to 29.

Source provenance

Source access and integrity log

This log records source retrieval and file integrity. It does not mean that an automated process independently confirmed every statement in the source.

Source and tier basis
https://www.icc-cpi.int/case-records?f%5B0%5D=cr_case_code%3A1168 Corpus classification: international-court; evidentiary role: confirmation-of-charges-decision. SHA-256 dd7206af28c8a644e522b250747b77af4357330641d046c5a984f8e745f54ab1
Retrieval
2026-07-20 · Preserved
Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
Source and tier basis
https://childrenandarmedconflict.un.org/en/the-lords-resistance-army-and-children Corpus classification: united-nations-finding; evidentiary role: institutional-finding. SHA-256 54955f9de12e2ec8de89ec3522d902073a655517e6be04f62cb04b95e316093a
Retrieval
2026-07-20 · Preserved
Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
Source and tier basis
https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/warrant-arrest-unsealed-against-five-lra-commanders Corpus classification: international-court; evidentiary role: arrest-warrant-release. SHA-256 459c96c6da8dcec7f39a984741d7cc5258083dfe366d33f703c046c4a6c44413
Retrieval
2026-07-20 · Preserved
Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger

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