Lumbala trial: the verdict of the Paris Assize Court is expected this Monday

‎Kinshasa, December 14^th, 2025 (CPA). – The verdict in the trial of Roger Lumbala, a former warlord prosecuted for complicity in crimes committed in 2003 in Ituri, in the north-eastern province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, is expected on Monday, January 15^th, at the Paris Assize Court in France, CPA has learned on Sunday from international media. According to the same sources, the jurors will answer nearly 150 questions before delivering their verdict, indicating that at the end of this trial, the prosecution has requested the most severe sentence provided for by the French Penal Code, namely life imprisonment with a minimum term, confiscation of property, and a permanent ban from French territory. According to the general lawyers, this sentence is proportionate to the seriousness of the charges, which include summary executions, torture, rape, slavery through forced labour, and looting, constituting crimes against humanity within the meaning of Article 212-1 of the Penal Code. The defendant, who is now 67 years old, had refused to appear in court, dismissing his lawyers, and challenging the jurisdiction of the French justice. Roger Lumbala is being prosecuted in the Paris court for complicity in crimes against humanity under universal jurisdiction, a principle that allows a state to try perpetrators of crimes that are not subject to a statute of limitations, regardless of where they have been committed. The same sources indicate that for a month, the court has heard accounts of abuses committed in 2002-2003 during the operation known as “Effacer le tableau” (Erase the board), carried out in the northeast of the country by the RCD-N, Lumbala’s rebel group.