for the hearing and to comply with the Chamber's instructions. On 6 February 2015, ICC severed the proceedings against Dominic Ongwen from the case of The Prosecutor v. Joseph Kony, Vincent Otti, Okot Odhiambo and Dominic Ongwen. As the three other suspects in the case had not appeared or had not been apprehended, the Chamber deemed this necessary so as not to delay the pre-trial proceedings against Mr Ongwen. The trial lasted from 6 December 2016 to 12 March 2020. 4107 victims were granted the right to participate in the proceedings though most chose to participate in the trial through legal representation. On 26 January 2016, Ongwen appeared for a pre-trial hearing. On 23 March 2016, the ICC confirmed the 70 charges brought against him and committed him to trial. Ongwen denied all the charges against him. During his detention, he has been visited by family members. He became father to another child following the visit of one of his wives. He has also been visited by four Acholi leaders, including the Paramount chief, His Highness David Onen Achana II, and the Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Gulu John Baptist Odama. During this visit he asked for a rosary, a hymn book and a prayer book Ongwen's case is unique because he himself was abducted by the LRA and forced to be a child soldier before rising to leadership. So this is the first ICC case in which an inductee is being charged with the same crimes as those done to him. According to one commentator, "In no other ICC trial have case narratives been so opposite, morally complex and riddled with paradoxes". Opposition to the ICC trial On 20 January 2015, The Acholi Religious Leaders' Peace Initiative (ARLPI), an interconfesionnal organisation whose goal is to pursue peaceful resolution to the LRA conflict, issued a statement opposing Ongwen's detention and trial at the ICC. Seeing him as a victim, they recommend that he should be brought back to Uganda to undergo "the rituals of 'Mato Oput' (Reconciliation) for all that he went through during his time in "LRA captivity". The signatories contrast this traditional approach, which promotes restoration, transformation, healing and new life, with the ICC approach which they consider to be punitive and retributive. Geoffry Omony, programme director of YOLRED, an organisation that supports former soldiers, supports this point of view. Other commentators consider that the ICC