French prosecutors on Friday sought a most sentence of life in jail for a former insurgent chief accused of being one of many masterminds of atrocities within the Second Congo War.
Roger Lumbala, 67, is on trial in Paris accused of complicity in crimes in opposition to humanity throughout the 1998-2003 battle. He denies the costs. A verdict is predicted on Monday.
For human rights organisations, the trial is an historic alternative to problem the impunity loved by fighters in japanese Democratic Republic of Congo, the place preventing continues regardless of a “peace” settlement ratified in Washington in early December.
But Lumbala, who was arrested in France in December 2020, refused to attend the trial after its opening session, saying the courtroom has no legitimacy.
Lumbala, who briefly served as commerce minister then ran for president in 2006, insists he was merely a politician with no troopers or volunteers below his management.
One of the prosecutors, Nicolas Péron, informed the jury that Lumbala is just failing to seem as a result of he’s “dealing with an issue he by no means thought he would encounter: he’s now dealing with justice”.
For greater than a month, the courtroom has heard about rape used as a weapon of struggle, sexual slavery, compelled labour, torture, mutilation, abstract executions, systematic looting, extortion, and the plundering of assets, together with diamonds.
The alleged atrocities had been dedicated in 2002-2003 throughout Operation “Erase the Slate”, carried out within the northeast of the nation by the Rally of Congolese Democrats and Nationalists (RCD-N) — Lumbala’s insurgent group.
The RCD-N was supported by neighbouring Uganda and allied with the MLC group of the present Congolese Minister of Transport, Jean-Pierre Bemba.
During the trial, one man informed how his brother had his forearm amputated and was then executed after being unable to eat his severed ear.
Women recounted rapes by troopers, usually gang rapes dedicated in entrance of fogeys, husbands, and kids.
The victims had been principally Nande or Bambuti Pygmies, ethnic teams accused by the attackers of siding with a rival faction.
Lumbala is being tried below the precept of common jurisdiction.
