Kinshasa, June 9th, 2026 (CPA).- The High Military Court has sentenced to death on Tuesday the former officer of the General Staff of the 21st Military Region in Kananga for the war crime of murdering two UN experts in 2017, during his hearing at the Ndolo military prison in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). « In its ruling, the High Military Court found, both in fact and in law, that the offences of breach of orders and the murder of two UN experts, Zaina Catalan and Michael Sharp, had been committed by the defendant, Colonel Jean de Dieu Mambweni.
Consequently, it sentences him, without allowing for mitigating circumstances, to the death penalty,” has declared Brigadier General Jean Claude Nzau, presiding judge.
And to continue: “The High Military Court also sentences the defendants Vincent Manga, Tshidima Bulabula, Ilunga Tshekele, Ngalamulume, Mulamba, Badibanga Tshikonda, Tshimanga, Mbutu, Kutu, Tchebwe, Kashama, Mukanda, Mukàti, Katende and Kazumba to the same sentence for the same crime.” However, this high court has declared itself incompetent to try the defendants Samy Muela and Jean Mulamba due to their minority status, has said Brigadier General Nzau, before declaring the public prosecution against the defendants who died during the preliminary investigation to be extinguished.
As a reminder, the head of the military public prosecutor’s office has lodged an appeal with the High Military Court against the judgment handed down by the military court of the former Kasai Occidental, which had sentenced the defendant Colonel Mambweni to ten years’ imprisonment.