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Hukumu imetolewa na Mahakama ya Kijeshi ya Jamhuri ya Kidemokrasia ya Congo (DRC) juu ya mauaji ya Balozi #LucaAttanasio mwaka wa 2021, licha ya ushahidi wa kesi kuendelea kuwa na utata.
Hata hivyo, Mawakili wa Washtakiwa wametangaza kukata rufaa kupinga hukumu hiyo ambayo awali Waendesha Mashtaka wa Umma walipendekeza washtakiwa wapewe hukumu ya kifo.
Upande wa Mashtaka uliwataja washtakiwa kama wahalifu waliokuwa na nia ya kumteka Balozi huyo na kudai malipo ya Tsh. Bilioni2.3 ili wamwachie yeye na wenzake watatu.
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A military tribunal in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday sentenced six men to life in prison for murdering Italy's ambassador in 2021, despite details about the killing remaining murky. Public prosecutors had originally sought the death penalty for the six accused calling them members of a "criminal gang".
But the tribunal decided to sentence the Congolese men -- one of whom is on the run -- to life in prison. Lawyers for the accused told AFP they would appeal the verdict. Luca Attanasio was among three people shot dead on February 22, 2021, when a United Nations convoy was ambushed in the DRC's troubled east.
The other fatalities were Congolese driver Mustapha Milambo, who worked for the United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP), and Italian police officer Vittorio Iacovacci. The three had been in a convoy of two WFP vehicles when they were ambushed about 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the eastern city of Goma, near the wildlife haven Virunga National Park.
According to the account of the attack delivered before the tribunal, assailants blocked the car containing Attanasio and shot the driver, before leading the other occupants into the bush.
- Kidnap gone wrong -
Park rangers alerted to the attack then followed the group and exchanged fire with them. Vittorio Iacovacci, the ambassador's bodyguard, was killed on the spot. Attanasio was also shot and later died of his wounds in a hospital in Goma.
The evening of the attack, the DRC's government blamed the FDLR -- a militia descended from Rwandan Hutu extremist groups that carried out the 1994 Tutsi genocide in Rwanda. Other officials cast the attack as an attempted kidnap-for-ransom gone wrong.
The latter version of events won out when Congolese police arrested six suspects in January 2022, and they initially confessed to an attempted abduction. But the defendants denied their confessions at trial, arguing that they had been extracted under torture.
Their lawyers also argued that there was a lack of hard evidence that the accused were involved in the killings, and pushed for acquittal.
- Million dollar ransom -
During the trial, the prosecution cast the defendants as criminals who had intended to kidnap the ambassador and demand a $1 million ransom. The prosecutors called no experts or witnesses to the stand in support of their case, however.
After handing down the life sentences on Friday, the military tribunal also awarded damages to Italy, equivalent to $2 million dollars in Congolese francs. Much of eastern DRC is prey to armed groups, many of which are a legacy of regional wars that flared during the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Militia attacks against civilians in the volatile region are common. The DRC has observed a de-facto moratorium on capital punishment since 2003, according to the UN, but courts continue to hand down death sentences.
AFP
