Highlights: The DRC announces reinstatement of the application of the death penalty 20 years after a moratorium. In a note signed by the Minister of Justice on Wednesday March 14, the DRC lifts the moratorium. The government wants to “ rid our country's army of traitors on the one hand and to stem the resurgence of acts of terrorism and urban banditry leading to human deaths” This capital punishment will be carried out in the event of " irrevocable judicial conviction occurring in time of war, under a state of siege or emergency"

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the government has decided to pave the way for the resumption of capital executions. In a note signed by the Minister of Justice on Wednesday March 14, the DRC lifts…

The DRC announces reinstatement of the application of the death penalty 20 years after a moratorium

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the government has decided to pave the way for the resumption of capital executions.

In a note signed by the Minister of Justice on Wednesday March 14, the DRC lifted the moratorium on the execution of the death penalty, in place for 20 years.

If it was pronounced by the courts, the sentence was not applied.

It is notably pronounced against soldiers guilty of treason, as well as against perpetrators of “

urban banditry leading to the death of a man

”.

Most death sentences handed down in the DRC are handed down by military courts, but they are also handed down by civilian justice.

Here, military magistrates during a trial in Goma, September 15, 2023. © Alexis Huguet / AFP

By: RFI with AFP

Although pronounced by the courts, the death penalty has no longer been applied in the DRC since its moratorium in 2003.

Regularly pronounced in the DRC by military courts

for treason, as well as by civilian courts for criminal conspiracy, death sentences were since then systematically commuted to life imprisonment.

Those sentenced to death then remained detained in Congolese prisons.

The government therefore decided to lift it and in her note, the Minister of Justice discusses the armed conflicts in the east of the country, as well as the development of banditry in urban centers.

She then explains that “

this moratorium was in the eyes of all these offenders as a guarantee of impunity, because even when they were irrevocably condemned to the death penalty, they were assured that this sentence would never be carried out against them. .

According to the circular note, the “

acts of treachery or espionage have exacted a heavy price from both the population and the Republic given the immensity of the damage suffered

.”

The government thus wants to “

rid our country's army of traitors on the one hand and to stem the resurgence of acts of terrorism and

urban banditry leading to human deaths

”.

This capital punishment will be carried out in the event of "

irrevocable judicial conviction occurring in time of war, under a state of siege or emergency

" or even "

during a police operation

", as well as "

during any other exceptional circumstance

”, we read in the note: this includes almost all cases of condemnation to the death penalty.

“Complicity with the enemy” in the context of the conflict with the M23

Many soldiers, including senior officers of the armed forces of the DRC (Fardc), but also deputies, senators and figures from the economic world in eastern DRC, have been arrested and accused of "

complicity with the 'enemy

This in the context of the war between the Fardc and the M23 rebels: the rout of the Congolese army and its auxiliary militias in the face of the progression of the M23 has fueled suspicions among the authorities of infiltration of the security forces.

Read alsoAfriland in the DRC: international outcry after the death sentence of whistleblowers

“Corridor to summary executions”, with “defective” justice

Civil society and human rights organizations immediately denounced this decision and called for its reversal.

The Congolese pro-democracy citizen movement Lucha (Fight for Change) condemned this decision, saying that it “

opens a corridor to summary executions in this country where the defective functioning of justice is recognized by all, including the magistrate supreme itself

The movement thus referred to recent criticism from President Félix Tshisekedi towards the DRC's judicial system, which he considers to be "

sick, even in the processing of cases

For Amnesty International, the decision of the Congolese authorities is “

a serious regression and a new sign of the alarming decline of the Tshisekedi administration in terms of human rights

”.

Amnesty therefore considers that it “

must be canceled

”.

Jean-Claude Katende, president of Asadho, one of the main Congolese organizations for the defense of human rights

denounced

warned of certain death

Read also Eastern DRC: four officers sentenced following the violent repression of a demonstration in Goma

The DRC announces reinstatement of the application of the death penalty 20 years after a moratorium

The DRC announces reinstatement of the application of the death penalty 20 years after a moratorium

“Complicity with the enemy” in the context of the conflict with the M23

“Corridor to summary executions”, with “defective” justice

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