The Brussels Assize Court on Friday evening handed down a 20-year prison sentence to Daniel Nsumbu, convicted of murdering Dieudonné Bula, nicknamed Dido, in May 2019, in the Matonge district. in Ixelles. It also pronounced a 10-year prison sentence against Maxime Kacou Koffi, guilty of premeditated intentional assault and battery, which resulted in the death of the victim without intention of killing him. The court then pronounced 300-hour labor sentences against four other men, guilty of premeditated intentional assault and battery on the victim. Finally, it imposed life imprisonment on Johan Bofane, who was in default and who was found guilty of premeditated murder. The court and the jurors took into account, with regard to Daniel Nsumbu, the “appalling violence” he displayed, his “dominant role”, his “antisocial personality traits”, the fact that he is “impulsive and angry” according to psychiatrists, but also of his youth marked by the absence of a father, the fact that he surrendered to the police and the regrets he expressed.
Regarding Maxime Kacou Koffi, judges and jurors also retained his “antisocial personality traits”, as well as his capacity for transgression according to psychiatrists, from his criminal record, but also from his “unsupportive” family circle, because he surrendered, that he expressed regrets and his professional insertion.
Regarding the four perpetrators of simple assault and battery, they took into consideration their limited role in the facts. For Roger Balaka Wenge, they withheld his criminal record but noted that he had shown compassion for the victim’s family and that he no longer “manifested himself in any culpable behavior”. For Brito Da Silva and for Adri Nsumbu-Sengele, judges and jurors retained the same elements as well as their “efforts to reintegrate professionally”. For Ngimbi Massamba, they also mentioned the fact that he no longer “manifested himself by any guilty behavior”, but also that he was professionally inserted into the world of music.
Finally, with regard to Johan Bofane, who was missing, the magistrates of the court and the popular jury took into account his essential role in the facts and his flight to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
During the night of Thursday to Friday, the jury of assizes rendered a verdict establishing the role of each of the seven accused in the attack committed on Dieudonné Bula, on May 26, 2019, in a shopping mall in the Matonge district in Ixelles. He first considered that they all, “in a concerted manner”, went to Matonge that day around 6:00 p.m., “to go to battle with Dieudonné Bula and his friends”. They left together in two vehicles, following each other through the tunnels of the capital, parked side by side in the Matonge district, before going to park and entering the shopping mall in two groups by the ends of this axis covered.
The jury considered that Daniel Nsumbu, in confession to having carried out the blows of knife which were fatal for the victim, was guilty of a murder. If he did not premeditate to kill, he must nevertheless have known that by using a knife and striking the victim in the abdomen with force, the consequences could be irreversible. The jury also found that Johan Bofane, who defaulted and presented no defense, was guilty of premeditated murder.
As for Maxime Kacou Koffi, the jury considered that by hitting the victim with a truncheon while she was fleeing, seriously injured, he contributed to her death but without having intended to kill her. Concerning the last four, Roger Balaka Wenge, Brito Da Silva, Ngimbi Massamba and Adri Nsumbu-Sengele, the jurors established that having been present during the fight, without disassociating themselves from the others, but without having seen the stab wounds, they were co-authors of assault and battery.
On May 26, 2019 around 6:30 p.m., Dieudonné Bula, nicknamed Dido, was violently attacked in a shopping mall in the Matonge district of Ixelles. Footage from video surveillance cameras shows seven men entering this gallery and then, a few minutes later, the victim running out with a bleeding wound in his abdomen. She is chased by someone who will be identified as Daniel Nsumbu, who hits her with a weighted sock and holds a knife in the other hand. Also in pursuit are those who will be identified as Johan Bofane, armed with a revolver and kicking him, and Maxime Kacou Koffi, who hit him on the back with a truncheon.
Dido died in hospital the day after the incident from his stab wounds.