A Belgian court has opened the way for a landmark trial into the 1961 assassination of Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) first Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba.
Former diplomat Étienne Davignon is accused of involvement in the detention and transfer that led to Lumumba’s killing, in a case that also now includes the deaths of his political allies, Maurice Mpolo and Joseph Okito.
More than six decades on, the proceedings raise complex legal questions about accountability, individual responsibility, and how justice can be pursued for crimes rooted in the colonial era and the Cold War.
Lumumba’s family members brought the case, which Belgian Federal Prosecutors have since taken up.
At just aged 35, Lumumba was executed in the southern region of Katanga, with the support of Belgian-backed mercenaries.
–Channel Africa–
