The DRC court sentences 49 to death for the killing of UN experts in 2017
One of the men was sentenced to death for “criminal conspiracy, involvement in a rebel movement, terrorism and war crime murder,” the president of the military tribunal said in sentencing.
HRW says, however, that the court and the Congolese state have failed to investigate “the higher up in the broader chain of command that overlooks state responsibility” and that “more questions than answers remain” despite Saturday’s ruling.
“The court did not take responsibility higher up the chain of command, seeking an act that only blames the militia for the killings rather than examining evidence pointing to the role of government officials. Authorities should investigate the critical role that government and security officials may have played in the killings.” , HRW told CNN in an email.
Two weeks later, UN peacekeepers discovered their bodies along with the bodies of their local interpreter, Betu Tshintela, outside Kananga.
A Congolese government official told CNN at the time that a Catalan body was found beheaded, but Sharp and Tshintela were not beheaded.
The U.S. ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mike Hammer, tweeted that the trial was “an important first step in revealing the truth” but urged Congolese authorities to continue their investigation “of all possible traces of justice”.
Sweden’s Foreign Minister Ann Linde said in a tweet that Sweden will study the verdict and may appeal the result because the country “strongly opposes the use of the death penalty in all circumstances without exception.”