Colonel sentenced to death over UN expert’s murder

A Congolese military court has handed down a death sentence to Colonel Jean de Dieu Mambweni for his involvement in the conspiracy to murder two United Nations experts nearly a decade ago. The verdict marks a significant development in a case that has persistently raised questions about state complicity in the killings.

Previously, in 2022, Colonel Mambweni received a 10-year sentence for failing to assist persons in danger and disobeying orders. However, military prosecutors appealed this decision, arguing for greater responsibility on his part. The High Military Court in Kinshasa agreed, ultimately finding Mambweni guilty of the war crime of murder for actively orchestrating the killings.

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This confirms that Zaida and Michael were not simply victims of a random act of violence.

UN experts Zaida Catalan, a Swedish-Chilean national, and Michael Sharp, an American, were investigating mass killings in the Kasai region when they were ambushed and killed on March 12, 2017. Their bodies were discovered 16 days later. While Congo has not executed anyone since 2003, making the death sentence practically a life sentence, the ruling also upheld death sentences against dozens of militia fighters convicted in 2022.

Catalan's sister, Elizabeth Morseby, welcomed the court's confirmation of a conspiracy, stating it "confirms that Zaida and Michael were not simply victims of a random act of violence." However, she expressed that justice remains incomplete, citing recordings attributed to Mambweni where he allegedly worried about the experts incriminating authorities and exposing efforts to conceal mass graves. Human Rights Watch has also noted that the 2022 trial overlooked video evidence suggesting government agents directed the experts toward the ambush site. Morseby argued that "true accountability requires not only convictions, but a full understanding of how and why these crimes were allowed to happen," asserting Mambweni lacked personal motive for the killings.

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True accountability requires not only convictions, but a full understanding of how and why these crimes were allowed to happen.