DRC Military Court Sentences Colonel to Death Over Killing of UN Investigators

DRC Military Court Sentences Colonel to Death Over Killing of UN Investigators

A military court in the Democratic Republic of Congo has sentenced Colonel Jean de Dieu Mambweni to death after finding him guilty of involvement in the 2017 killing of two United Nations experts in the country’s central Kasai region.

The case relates to the deaths of Zaida Catalan and Michael Sharp, who were investigating reports of mass killings linked to unrest in Kasai when they were intercepted near the village of Moyo-Musila.

They were later taken into the bush and executed, with their bodies discovered days later.

According to court findings, the colonel played a role in orchestrating the events that led to their deaths, which the tribunal classified as murder and a war crime.

Prosecutors successfully argued on appeal that his responsibility was greater than previously determined in an earlier 2022 ruling, where he had received a ten-year sentence for lesser offences, including failure to assist persons in danger and disobeying orders.

The High Military Court in Kinshasa ultimately revised the judgment, issuing a capital punishment sentence.

However, the Democratic Republic of Congo has not carried out executions since 2003, meaning the sentence is widely expected to be commuted in practice to life imprisonment.

The killings of the two UN experts, who were part of a mission to document violence in the Kasai region, remain one of the most high-profile cases linked to the militia conflict that escalated in the area during that period.