The main defence lawyer for Ugandan rebel chief Joseph Kony Wednesday urged International Criminal Court judges to freeze the case against his client, as he cannot challenge evidence in his absence.

Peter Haynes said he had the “paradoxical mandate” of representing Kony’s interests without having any way of receiving his client’s instructions.

The fugitive warlord faces 39 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, rape, torture, enslavement and sexual slavery, allegedly committed between July 2002 and December 2005 in northern Uganda.

The three-day hearing at the ICC in The Hague is the first-ever to be held without the suspect present. Kony has not been seen in public since 2006.

It is not a trial but a so-called “confirmation of charges” hearing, where a thr

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