Ex-Belgian diplomat ordered to stand trial over murder of Congo’s Lumumba
Al Jazeera
Etienne Davignon, 93, is the only one alive among 10 Belgians accused by the Congolese leader’s family of complicity.
A 93-year-old former Belgian diplomat has been ordered by a Brussels court to stand trial over the assassination of Congo’s first prime minister and anti-colonial icon, Patrice Lumumba, in 1961.
Lumumba, who became the prime minister of the country – now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo – upon its independence from Belgium on June 24, 1960, was ousted in September of the same year and later killed by a Belgian-backed secessionist rebel group just months later on January 16, 1961.
But in 2002, a parliamentary investigation found that Belgium was “morally responsible” for Lumumba’s death.
On Tuesday, Etienne Davignon, 93, a former European commissioner who was a junior diplomat at the time, stands trial over his death, marking the first trial related to the murder of Lumumba.
He is also accused of being involved in the murder of Lumumba’s political allies, Maurice Mpolo and Joseph Okito.
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Etienne Davignon, 93, is the only one alive among 10 Belgians accused by the Congolese leader’s family of complicity.
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