Congo Kinshasa
26 sentenced to death in Congo's Kabila trial

afrol News, 8 January - In a military court in Kinshasa, death sentences passed yesterday on some 30 defendants for their alleged role in the assassination of President Laurent-Desiré Kabila on 16 January 2001. Colonel Eddy Kapend, a former aide to the late Congolese President, was found guilty of killing the Mr Kabila. There is no appeal against these judgements, which are conceived as unfounded by most Congolese. 

Few observers of the Kinshasa trial however felt that the truth about the assassination of the father of today's President, Joseph Kabila, had been known. The Kinshasa military court confirmed the official version of the killing, that Colonel Kapend and other trusted security officers had killed the President as part of a planned coup d'état.

As there is found little trust and comfort in this official version, Kinshasa confirms its reputation as a kitchen of rumours. The oldest and most commonly believed version on why President Laurent-Desiré Kabila was killed is connected to the Congolese war. Kinshasa's Angolan allies, according to this rumour, were not satisfied with Mr Kabila's handling of the situation and the numerous UNITA bases on Congolese soil. Other rumours even connect the President's son - who took over his father's office - to the murder plot. 

Whether any of these rumours are connected to the truth; it will only be known when a new regime takes office in Kinshasa, city dwellers assume. While disagreeing in which rumour to believe in, most agree that Colonel Kapend, one of President Kabila's most trusted men, could not have spearheaded the coup. Too many details speak against it. 

First, Colonel Kapend was a key person in maintaining calm after the assassination of President Kabila one year ago. Without indicating that the President had been shot, the colonel made a televised speech, announcing the closure of the borders and appealing for calm. The killing of the President was only announced days later and Colonel Kapend had made no public efforts to stage a coup.

Also the military trial has been called a farce by many observers. Complicated and changing charges were presented and there was little mention of a motive. Several of the allegedly implicated persons turned out to never have existed. "The defendants clearly did not receive a fair trial," the human rights group Amnesty International says. Colonel Kapend and most of the accused pleaded innocent in court. 

Human rights groups are criticising the court's proceedings, claiming that many of those on trial clearly had not been involved in the assassination and alleging that some had been tortured. Further, the defendants had not been given adequate time to prepare their defence: they were notified only 2-3 days before the start of the trial, and were only able to meet their lawyers for the first time on the opening day of the trial. 

The verdict was therefore immediately protested by the lawyers and families of the convicted, and by groups such as Amnesty. There is no appeal against the judgements of the Kinshasa military court, but death penalties have to be approved by the President, providing a slim hope for those sentenced to death. 

Of the 135 accused of being involved in the assassination, 45 persons were acquitted by the court, while 90 were found guilty of the conspiracy to murder the President. Of those 90 guilty, 26 were given the death sentence and 64 received jail terms ranging from six months to life.

According to Amnesty, the death sentences violate a personal commitment made by President Joseph Kabila to the UN Commission for Human Rights in March 2001 to retain the moratorium on the case until parliament had had time to debate abolition of the death penalty. Although no such debate has yet taken place, the moratorium was nevertheless lifted on 23 September 2002. Shortly afterwards, the prosecution called for death sentences for 115 of the 135 defendants.

Sources: Based on UN, Amnesty, media reports and afrol archives

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