{"id":1259951,"date":"2022-01-31T23:07:42","date_gmt":"2022-02-01T04:07:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1259951"},"modified":"2022-01-31T23:07:47","modified_gmt":"2022-02-01T04:07:47","slug":"d-r-congo-51-sentenced-to-death-over-revenge-killing-of-u-n-staff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/d-r-congo-51-sentenced-to-death-over-revenge-killing-of-u-n-staff\/","title":{"rendered":"D.R. Congo: 51 Sentenced to Death over &#039;Revenge&#039; Killing of U.N. Staff"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fd-r-congo-51-sentenced-to-death-over-revenge-killing-of-u-n-staff%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1259951&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"subheading\">A military court in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (D.R. Congo) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/africa\/20220129-dr-congo-court-sentences-51-in-trial-over-2017-murder-of-un-experts\">sentenced<\/a> 51 people to death on Saturday for their involvement in the killings of two U.N. staff members in March 2017, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported, noting the trial\u2019s prosecutors suggested local militiamen carried out the murders \u201cto take revenge against the UN\u201d for allegedly \u201cfailing to prevent attacks against them by the [D.R. Congo] army.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors of the court in Kananga, the capital of D.R. Congo\u2019s Kasai-Central province, \u201chad demanded the death penalty against 51 of the 54 accused, 22 of whom are fugitives and are being tried in absentia,\u201d AFP reported on January 29.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThe charge sheet ranged from \u2018terrorism\u2019 and \u2018murder\u2019 to \u2018participation in an insurrectional movement\u2019 and \u2018the act of a war crime through mutilation,&#8217;\u201d the news agency relayed.<\/p>\n<p>American Michael Sharpe and Swedish-Chilean Zaida Catalan were investigating alleged human rights violations in Kasai-Central province on behalf of the U.N. Security Council on March 12, 2017, when they were <a href=\"https:\/\/reliefweb.int\/report\/democratic-republic-congo\/dr-congo-probe-state-role-un-experts-murder\">murdered<\/a>. U.N. peacekeepers discovered the bodies of Sharpe and Catalan in a shallow grave&nbsp;16 days after they were executed. Catalan\u2019s corpse was found beheaded.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAccording to the official version of events, pro-Kamuina Nsapu militiamen executed the pair on March 12, 2017, the day they went missing,\u201d AFP recalled on January 29.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cDuring the trial, prosecutors suggested that the militiamen had carried out the murders to take revenge against the United Nations, which the sect accused of failing to prevent attacks against them by the army,\u201d the news agency observed.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors at Kananga\u2019s military court on Saturday referred to members of the local Kamuina Nsapu militia, whom the D.R. Congo government has previously <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rfi.fr\/fr\/afrique\/20170424-rdc-assassinat-deux-experts-onu-kasai-video-kamwina-nsapu-catalan-sharp\">blamed<\/a> for the U.N. staff killings.<\/p>\n<p>AFP reviewed a confidential U.N. Security Council <a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/20170719-dr-congo-may-be-linked-un-experts-murder-report\">report<\/a> on July 18, 2017, indicating that the D.R. Congo government could be implicated in the murders of&nbsp;Sharpe and Catalan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[A]vailable evidence does not preclude the involvement of different actors, such as pro- or anti-government Kamwina Nsapu factions, other armed groups as well as members of state security services,\u201d the report read.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_19700498\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/jan28-2022-peacekeeper-dr-congo-getty.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-19700498\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/jan28-2022-peacekeeper-dr-congo-getty.jpg\" alt=\"A peacekeeper holds his weapon during a patrol around the new base set up in Rugari, 50 km from the city of Goma, as the population watches the military in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on January 28, 2022. - At the foot of the extinct volcano Mikeno, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, entire villages are deserted. Their inhabitants fled violent clashes this week between the army and the ex-rebels of the &quot;M23&quot;, which would have killed around thirty soldiers. (Photo by Glody MURHABAZI \/ AFP) (Photo by GLODY MURHABAZI\/AFP via Getty Images)\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A peacekeeper holds his weapon during a patrol around the new base set up in Rugari, 50 km from the city of Goma, as the population watches the military in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on January 28, 2022. (Photo by GLODY MURHABAZI\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Kamuina Nsapu militia launched an uprising in&nbsp;Kasai-Central province in August 2016 in an act of revenge for the assassination of their clan chief, Jean-Pierre Mpandi, by&nbsp;D.R. Congo state troops. The Kamuina Nsapu targeted \u201cstate agents and symbols\u201d during their revolt, according to the U.N. Security Council\u2019s July 2017 report. The D.R. Congo army defended its institutions by launching offensives against the local militia deemed \u201cdisproportionate\u201d by the U.N. By 2017, the fighting escalated to involve several armed factions hostile to the D.R. Congo government as well as \u201cpro-government militias,\u201d according to the U.N. Security Council report.<\/p>\n<p>The violence resulted in the deaths of either \u201chundreds\u201d of people or approximately 3,400 people \u2014 depending on reports \u2014 before it ended in mid-2017. The U.N. said in 2017 it believed mass graves had been dug in Kasai-Central province to bury the scores of people killed in the conflict. Sharpe and Catalan were investigating the matter at the time of their deaths.<\/p>\n<p>The January 29 verdict of the Kananga military court, which sentenced 51 people to death for the joint killing of Sharpe and Catalan, \u201cis liable to appeal at the High Military Court in Kinshasa,\u201d AFP noted, referring to D.R. Congo\u2019s national capital city.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCapital punishment is frequently pronounced in murder cases in DRC, but is routinely commuted to life imprisonment since the country declared a moratorium on executions in 2003,\u201d according to the news agency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A military court in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (D.R. Congo) sentenced 51 people to death on Saturday for their involvement in the killings of two U.N. staff members &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1259951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1259951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1259951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1259951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1259951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}