DRC: life imprisonment for four police officers for the death of Olivier Mpunga

Kinshasa Military Court (Illustration).

B. Minas / RFI

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

Four officers of the police intelligence services were sentenced to life imprisonment on the night of Friday December 24 to Saturday 25. They were convicted of the murder of a man in his thirties who died under torture. , when he had been arrested for the theft of a vehicle.

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With our correspondent in Kinshasa

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The executioners were confused by a video

that they themselves had shot while abusing Olivier Mpunga in the police station.

The trial lasted less than a week before the High Military Court in Kinshasa.

Highest ranking among the 4 convicted: the senior senior commissioner Samuel Mopepe, head of operations at the General Directorate of Intelligence and Special Services (DGRSP) of the police.

It was he who ordered his subordinates to torture Olivier Mpunga, according to the public prosecutor.

$ 80,000 in damages to the victim's family

He therefore receives a life sentence.

Same sentence for the two judicial police officers who mistreated the young man.

The fourth officer, Commissioner Morgan Shongo, receives 10 years in prison.

All must, in addition, each pay $ 80,000 in damages to the victim's family.

The lawyer for those close to Olivier Mpunga, Maître Peter Kazadi, regrets, however, that the Congolese state has not been found responsible by the courts and, as such, ordered to pay damages.

Another regret expressed by the lawyer: that the owner of the stolen car and who brought Olivier Mpunga in front of his executioners was not, too, condemned despite the requisitions of the prosecution. 

Serial burrs

The Congolese authorities, the police and civil society organizations welcome the holding of this flagrant trial with the hope that it will help prevent further tragedies.

Brutal arrest of a former governor, death of a television director hit by a stray bullet in Kinshasa, death of civilians during the repression of demonstrations in the East, etc., in recent weeks the police have been questioned by the civil society for blunders attributed to its elements.

DRC: death of young Olivier Mpunga in intelligence offices arouses outrage

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