KINSHASA, CONGO (AP) – A military court in Congo has condemned about 50 people to death nearly five years after the murders of United Nations (UN) investigators Michael Sharp and Zaida Catalan in central Congo’s Kasai region.
The President of the Kasai Occidental Military Court, Brigadier General Jean-Paulin Ntshayokolo said on Saturday that of the 54 defendants, one officer is sentenced to 10 years for violating orders and two others were acquitted.
Those sentenced to death will serve out life sentences, as Congo has observed a moratorium on the death penalty since 2003.
Sharp of the United States and Catalan of Sweden were assassinated on March 12, 2017 in the Kasai Central region while on a field visit with representatives of Kamwina Nsapu, a militia active in Kasai whose customary chief Jean-Pierre Mponde was killed by Congolese army troops in August 2016.
