Key facts
- A Congolese military court sentenced Colonel Jean de Dieu Mambweni to death for orchestrating the murder of two UN experts.
- The experts, Zaida Catalan and Michael Sharp, were killed in March 2017 while investigating mass killings in the Kasai region.
- Mambweni was previously sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2022 but prosecutors appealed for a harsher penalty.
- The court found Mambweni guilty of murder, a war crime, and his sentence will likely amount to life imprisonment.
- The ruling suggests a conspiracy, raising questions about state involvement in the killings.
A Congolese military court has sentenced Colonel Jean de Dieu Mambweni to death for his role in the conspiracy to murder two United Nations experts in central Congo in 2017. The High Military Court in Kinshasa found Mambweni guilty of murder, a war crime, overturning his previous 10-year sentence from a 2022 trial.
Military prosecutors had appealed the earlier sentence, arguing that Mambweni bore greater responsibility for the killings of Swedish-Chilean expert Zaida Catalan and American expert Michael Sharp. The two experts were investigating mass killings in the Kasai region when they were ambushed and shot. Their bodies were discovered 16 days later.
The court's ruling, which concludes nearly nine years of legal proceedings, also upheld death sentences against dozens of militia fighters convicted in 2022. Congo has not carried out an execution since 2003, meaning Mambweni's death sentence will likely be commuted to life imprisonment.
Prosecutors initially dismissed suggestions of state involvement but later arrested Mambweni and other officials accused of collaborating with rebels. The sister of one of the victims, Elizabeth Morseby, welcomed the finding of a conspiracy but stated that justice remained incomplete, citing recordings attributed to Mambweni expressing concern that the experts could incriminate authorities and expose efforts to conceal mass graves. Human Rights Watch has previously noted that the 2022 trial overlooked video evidence allegedly showing government agents directing the experts toward the ambush site. Paul Nsapu Mukulu, president of Congo's National Human Rights Commission, suggested Mambweni likely did not act alone and that the murders constitute a state crime.