Court condemns 26 to death, acquits 45 in Kabila murder trial

The Military Order Court in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) capital, Kinshasa, sentenced 26 people to death on Tuesday and acquitted another 45 accused of involvement in the assassination of President Laurent-Desire Kabila, who ruled the country from May 1997 to January 2001.

Those condemned included Col Eddy Kapend, Kabila's former aide de camp. Kapend was identified as the ringleader of the killers. However, the court acquitted Fono Onokoko, the wife of Rashidi Mizele, Kabila's bodyguard, who, prosecutors said, shot Kabila dead on 16 January.

Defence lawyers said they deplored the large number of death sentences from among the 135 accused, who have been standing trial over the past 10 months, and said they would strive to have the court's ruling overturned.

"Under the oath lawyers take in this country, we no longer have the right to appeal and to oppose [the ruling]," Franck Mulenda, Kapend's lawyer, told IRIN. So, he added, the only recourse left to the layers was to take "extraordinary action". He said that under the circumstances the defence team might have to petition the Supreme Court and even the nation's current president, Joseph Kabila, son of the late Kabila.

"In any event, the normal [legal] procedure requires that executions are not carried out until all possible avenues for pardon are exhausted," Odia Kayembe, another of Kapend's lawyers, said.

Most of the condemned were members of the military. Amnesty International and other human rights organisations expressed concern for their fate after the military prosecutor, in his closing submission, demanded the death penalty for 115 of the detainees. The rights bodies also expressed concern at the detention of people arrested because of their relationships with the accused.

"We will bring pressure to bear for the release of wives arrested in place of their husbands," Eley Lofele, the president of the Association of International Defence Laywers, said.