Policeman bags death sentence for activist’s murder

A DR Congo court has sentenced a former senior police officer to death for the 2010 murder of rights activist Floribert Chebeya and his driver, Chebaya’s NGO said Thursday.

The body of Chebeya, who founded the Voice of the Voiceless rights group, was found in his car on the outskirts of the capital Kinshasa in June 2010.

Chebeya had been summoned to a police station in Kinshasa the day before his murder.

His driver Fidele Bazana, who drove him to the police station, went missing and is suspected to have also been killed.

On Wednesday, the Voice of the Voiceless said a military court had the same day sentenced two police officers over the murders. Both men had been on the run for over a decade.

Lieutenant-Colonel Christian Ngoy Kenga-Kenga got the death penalty, the rights group said, while Jacques Mugabo was handed a 12-year jail term.

The Democratic Republic of Congo has observed a de facto moratorium on capital punishment since 2003, according to the United Nations, but courts continue to hand down death sentences.

A military prosecutor’s office recently investigated another suspect, former police chief John Numbi, and concluded that he was involved in the murders. He is still on the run. (AFP)