2024-03-29 19:05:32
If convicted, these soldiers risk being the first to be executed, after the lifting of a moratorium on the death penalty which had been in force since 2003.
Around ten death sentences were requested on Friday against Congolese soldiers in Goma, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the first since the authorities’ decision in mid-March to resume capital executions, reports AFP citing a lawyer.
The defendants face the death penalty while the next hearing is scheduled for April 5 and will be devoted to the defense’s pleadings, said Me Olenga.
According to the lawyer, these soldiers were based at Lushangi-Café, a position of the armed forces of the DRC (FARDC) in the vicinity of Sake, a city considered to be a strategic barrier on the road to Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu.
«They never fled from the enemy nor abandoned their position, on the contrary“, protested the lawyer.
If convicted, these soldiers risk being the first to be executed, after the lifting of a moratorium on the death penalty which had been in force since 2003. Capital sentences were regularly handed down but systematically commuted to life imprisonment. .
The Congolese government announced on March 13 the resumption of executions, particularly against soldiers accused of treason.
The rout of the Congolese army and its auxiliary militias in the face of the advance of the M23, a rebellion supported by neighboring Rwanda, has fueled suspicions among the authorities of infiltration of the security forces.
The decision to reinstate the death penalty is strongly criticized by human rights organizations and the Catholic Church, which has called on the government to “abolish the death penalty for all crimes».
With Afp
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