THE HAGUE (AFP) — Former Democratic Republic of Congo militia chief Thomas Lubanga will remain in detention after the International Criminal Court (ICC) granted a prosecution bid Monday to suspend his release.
The appeals chamber granted an application by prosecutors for Lubanga to remain in custody pending the outcome of its appeal against the court's decision to free him, a court document said.
"The request for suspensive effect of the appeal ... is granted."
The court last week ordered Lubanga to be released from detention over a delay in his war crimes trial.
Lubanga's trial, the ICC's first, was to have started two weeks ago but was stalled when the court ruled that prosecutors had wrongly withheld evidence favourable to the defence from Lubanga's lawyers.
This "misuse" inhibited Lubanga's ability to prepare a proper defence, it said, putting an indefinite stay on proceedings until the matter was resolved.
Lubanga subsequently applied for his release, saying there were no legal grounds to hold him.
The office of chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has said it was confident the trial would nevertheless begin in September.
Lubanga, 47, is accused of abducting minors under 15 and using child soldiers in attacks by the armed wing of his Union of Congolese Patriots between September 2002 and August 2003 in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo.
Humanitarian NGOs say inter-ethnic fighting and violence involving militias in the country's Ituri province -- centred on control over one of the most lucrative gold-mining territories in the world -- has claimed some 60,000 lives going back to 1999.
The conflict has also created tens of thousands of refugees.
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