This usual commander was the commander-in-chief of a militia linked to the armed uprising of Kamuina Nsapu, a rebel fighting government forces between 2016 and 2019. He, along with his militia, is accused of abusing civilians in KasaïCentral province in early 2017. He was convicted this afternoon by the Kanangas military court.
Laurent Nsubu Katende was convicted of war crimes for murder, torture, mutilation, rape, arson and looting during attacks on villages in Kazumba territory in early 2017.
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More than 230 people joined as civilian parties. Fifty of them were able to testify during the hearings.
For Maître Dominique Kambala, a lawyer for the civil parties, this verdict is a relief, especially since the victims obtained financial compensation.
“I felt a sigh of relief from the people who said ‘there you have it, he took himself for a warlord, he is reduced, there is no longer a period of impunity. Here is the one who no longer dares to stand up. his little finger to lift the machete or the knife “. So there is this sense of justice. ”
This is the first verdict in this conflict that pitted militias against government forces and which, according to NGO Trial International, has claimed more than 3,000 victims.
For its coordinator Guy Mushiata, this verdict is also a strong message against impunity in this province. “We have a message: all those who are believed to be the perpetrators of the crimes that are still going on, at some point they could be caught. and these serious violations of human rights violations are indescribable. At any time, Congolese justice will be able to catch up and judge them. “
The NGO hopes that this trial will set a precedent: to convict the perpetrators of crimes committed by militias, but also to convict the massacres committed by the Congolese army and other security forces during this conflict.
It should be noted that it is in the same province of Kasaïque that two UN experts, the American Michael Sharp and the Swedish Zaida Catalan, as well as four Congolese readers who followed them, were kidnapped and killed in March 2017. The trial against their alleged killers is still going.
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