The International Criminal Court on Wednesday ordered former Democratic Republic of Congo militia chief Thomas Lubanga to be freed from detention over a delay in his war crimes trial.
  
"Trial Chamber I orders the release of the accused," said a statement from the tribunal.
  
Lubanga's release was put on hold pending the outcome of a prosecution appeal against the ruling.
  
"The Prosecutor appealed the decision to release Thomas Lubanga Dyilo and requested suspension of any release," a statement said.
  
"The Prosecutor strongly believes that the need to do justice for the victims in DR Congo and to respect a fair trial for Thomas Lubanga can and must be harmonised."
  
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.
  
Lubanga's war crimes trial, the ICC's first, was to have started last Monday 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 kick off in September.