DRC: Statement by the Spokesperson on Death Penalty Sentences
09.08.2024 EEAS Press Team
The military justice system in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) sentenced 26 individuals to death on August 8 for “war crimes,” “participation in an insurrectional movement,” and “treason.” On the same day, the Kinshasa-Gombe High Court sentenced to death six members of the Force du progrès, a group affiliated with the Union pour la Démocratie et le Progrès Social party, for, among other things, “criminal association” and “attempted murder.”
The EU reiterates its commitment to the need to guarantee the right to a fair trial and respect for the rights of the accused, in line with the international law obligations to which the DRC has subscribed.
The EU also reiterates its total opposition to the death penalty, in all circumstances. The death penalty is incompatible with the inalienable right to life and is cruel, inhuman and degrading. It represents the ultimate denial of human dignity, fails to deter criminal acts and makes miscarriages of justice irreversible. We have strongly expressed this in these terms with all relevant interlocutors in the DRC, including recently in meetings with various members of the Government and senior officials in Kinshasa.
The EU expresses its deep concerns about this decline in the rule of law, particularly if executions were to be carried out in a country which had until now chosen to maintain a moratorium on the death penalty.
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