51 condemned to death in DRC for 2017 murder of UN researchers

The military court of Katanga in southern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has sentenced 51 people to death over the murders of two United Nations researchers who were carrying out an investigation into violence in the Kasai region in 2017.

UN experts Zaida Catalan and Michael Sharp were killed in Kasai, DR Congo while investigating mass graves BERTIL ERICSON, TIMO MUELLER TT News Agency/AFP/File

The judgement, after a four-year trial, was read on Saturday in by General Jean Paulin Ntshayokolo against a number of former militiamen of the Kamuina Nsapu sect.

Colonel Jean de Dieu Mambweni, who was accused of sending the UN experts, Zaida Catalan and Michael Sharp, into the trap that resulted in their brutal murder, as well as armed the assassins, was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

The public prosecutor charged him with "terrorism, association with criminals and war crimes,” but was convicted only of disobeying orders and letting the victims travel to an area that was known as dangerous.

"He is a soldier whose quality cannot be called into question," said Ntshayokolo.

“But his downfall was to have received the United Nations experts in his office without the knowledge of his superiors,” he added.

RFI spoke to Mambweni’s lawyer, Daniel Makolo after the verdict. He will confer with his client to see if he will appeal.

The lawyers of the others convicted would not comment on the verdict.

Many questions remain

Catalan, a Swede, and Sharp, an American, were UN investigators tasked with investigating unrest in the Kasai region, which had broken out in 2016. They were looking into mass graves in the area.The death of a local chief began the bloodshed. Some 3,400 people were killed in the year-and-a half of fighting.

Sixteen days after they disappeared, their bodies were found in a village nearby. Catalan had been beheaded.

The 146-page verdict took five hours to be read in court, but it raised more questions than answers, according to Dominique Kambala, a lawyer with the Congolese Society for Rule of Law.

“There are enigmas that remain,” he told RFI.

Great Lakes researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW) Thomas Fessy, agrees.

The investigation did not indicate what happened when Catalan and Sharp were murdered, nor did it explain what happened to their Congolese interpreter and driver, who disappeared.

• DRC Exclusive report Part 1: Kasai massacre villages await UN inquiry

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“Nearly five years after their assassination, there are still more questions to answer and much more to do,” Fessy told RFI, saying that the case should not be closed.

“The Congolese justice system, with the support of the UN, must now carry out an exhaustive investigation into the crucial role that state officials, and therefore the government or the security forces, may have played in these murders,” he said.

Moratorium on capital punishment

“President Tshisekedi himself pledged that the whole truth be revealed, so let's not stop there,” he added.

Fessy stressed that an investigation into the chain of command to find out who allegedly planned and ordered these murders is necessary, questioning the responsibility of the state.

Two defendants were convicted in absentia. Two defendants, including journalist Trudon Raphael Kapuku, were acquitted.

Although 49 were condemned to death, the DRC has placed a moratorium on capital punishment since 2003. It is likely that their sentences will be commuted to life in prison.

Note the verdict in the case of the heinous murder of Zaida Catalán and Michael Sharp. We will study the verdict, and we note that it can be appealed. 🇸🇪 strongly opposes the use of the death penalty in all circumstances without exception.

— Ann Linde (@AnnLinde) January 29, 2022

The verdict was delivered in the presence of American and Swedish diplomats as well as United Nations delegates who attended the hearing.