Congo colonel given death sentence for killing UN experts

A Congolese military court has sentenced ‌an army colonel to death for taking part in a conspiracy to murder two U.N. experts in central Congo nearly a decade ago, in a case that continues to raise questions about state involvement.

In his first trial in 2022, Colonel Jean de Dieu Mambweni was sentenced to 10 years for failing to help people in danger and disobeying orders. Military appealed, claiming he bore greater responsibility.

The High Military Court in Kinshasa agreed, finding Mambweni guilty ⁠on Friday of the war crime of murder for actively orchestrating the killings, and sentencing him to death, according to ​a ruling reviewed by Reuters and the sister of one of the victims.

Congo has not carried out an execution ​since 2003, meaning the sentence will in practice become life imprisonment.

On March 12, 2017, U.N. experts Zaida Catalan, a Swedish-Chilean, and Michael Sharp, an American, were investigating mass killings in the Kasai region when they were stopped by Kamuina Nsapu militia fighters at a bridge near the village of Moyo-Musila. They were taken into the bush and shot, and their bodies were discovered 16 days later.

The ruling, which closes nearly nine years of proceedings, also upheld ‌death sentences ⁠against dozens of militia fighters handed down in 2022.

Prosecutors initially dismissed suggestions that state agents were involved, but later arrested the colonel and other officials who they said had been working with the rebels.

Catalan’s sister, Elizabeth Morseby, welcomed the court’s finding that there had been a conspiracy. “This confirms that Zaida and Michael were not simply victims of a ​random act of violence,” she ​said.

But she said justice ⁠remained incomplete, pointing to recordings presented in court attributed to Mambweni in which he allegedly expressed concern that the U.N. experts could incriminate authorities and expose efforts to conceal mass ​graves.

In January, Human Rights Watch claimed the 2022 trial overlooked video evidence showing government agents guiding the experts toward the ambush site. Morseby remarked that true accountability means not just securing convictions, but also fully understanding how and why these crimes were allowed to occur. She maintained that Mambweni had no personal motive to kill the experts.

Paul Nsapu Mukulu, president of Congo’s National Human Rights Commission, ​said Mambweni was unlikely to have acted alone.

“All the evidence suggests that the double murder of the U.N. experts constitutes a state crime, ​and a state crime is not easily dealt with.”