On October 2, 2023, an officer was sentenced to death – a sentence commuted to life imprisonment in the DRC – and three other soldiers to 10 years in prison while two others were acquitted by the military justice system which tried them for the repression of a demonstration which left more than 50 dead on August 30, 2023 in Goma, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
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In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), four officers were condemned by military justice after the Goma demonstration bloodily repressed on August 30. Colonel Mike Mikombe is sentenced to death, a sentence commuted to life imprisonment since the death penalty has not been applied in the DRC for 20 years.
Three other people received 10 years in prison. Two accused were also acquitted.
Sentences more severe than the indictment of the superior auditor since he had not requested the death penalty against the main accused, commander of the Republican Guard in North Kivu. On the other hand, the court did not retain the charge of “crime against humanity”, but that of “murder”.
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If the trial opened quickly after the events, on September 5, it did not make it possible to remove all the gray areas of the events of August 30, 2023, when the repression of a demonstration planned by members of a political-religious sect, to demand the departure of foreign forces and MONUSCO, had caused more than fifty deaths. A report which is still contested by the families of the victims.
The question was also who had given the orders that day. The main accused, Colonel Mike Mikiombe, had requested during a hearing that the military governor of North Kivu, General Constant Ndima, recalled for “consultations” in Kinshasa and since replaced, be heard by the court. “ We cannot smear the Republican Guard because we must protect the governor “, he declared. Request remained unanswered.
The defendants’ lawyers have already announced their intention to appeal these convictions.
Read alsoBloody repression of a demonstration in Goma: the six soldiers plead not guilty