In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, thirty people were sentenced to death on Saturday May 15 for their participation last Thursday in violence against the police in the capital Kinshasa.
Broadcast all day Friday live on public television, the flagrant trial relating to the clashes at the end of Ramadan lasted until the early hours of Saturday.
The verdict, pronounced at the end of the hearing, was confirmed by Me Chief Tshipamba, a lawyer for the civil parties.
Corrigendum after verification with clerk and lawyers: 41 defendants in total.
➡️ 31 condemned including 30 “to death” [2 others were condemned for attempted murder on a police officer] and only one at 5 years for “rebellion”.
5 acquitted and 5 minors dismissed.
#Heurts_ramadan https://t.co/NtbhH2Qhgp
- Pascal Mulegwa 🎙 (@pascal_mulegwa) May 15, 2021
On Thursday, violent clashes, the images of which were widely circulated on social networks, had broken out between faithful Muslims competing for access to the Martyrs Stadium, the large stadium of the Congolese capital, to organize the official closing prayer of Ramadan. .
The protesters attacked in particular the police present on the scene to supervise the ceremony.
Eid al-Fitr - # RDC🇨🇩: the faithful before the shortened prayer.
pic.twitter.com/MXcnbneWCw
- Pascal Mulegwa 🎙 (@pascal_mulegwa) May 13, 2021
A first official report shows a police officer killed, a policewoman between life and death and 46 other police officers injured, including eight in critical condition.
About ten police vehicles were damaged, one of which was completely set on fire.
Thirty-eight people were arrested and tried for immediate appearance the next day at the Tribunal de Grande Instance of the commune of Gombe, in central Kinshasa.
Regularly pronounced, especially in cases involving armed groups in the east of the country, the death penalty has not been applied in DR Congo since a moratorium decided in 2003, and systematically commuted to a life sentence.
With AFP
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