DR Congo is sentencing 30 people to death for clashes with police in Kinshasa
Thirty people were sentenced to death in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday after a one-day trial for their role in the anti-police violence that marked the end of Ramadan in the capital, judicial sources said.
A police officer was murdered in Kinshasa on Thursday as rival Muslim groups fought for the right to mark the end of Ramadan at a major sports stadium, officials said.
A civil parties attorney, Chief Tshipamba, told AFP that 30 people had been sentenced to death in a trial that began Friday, a day after the violence allegedly took place. A recording of the proceedings obtained by AFP confirmed the verdict.
DR Congo has not applied death sentences since the introduction of a moratorium in 2003. Since then, death sentences have been commuted to life imprisonment.
The regional government said several people were injured in addition to the killed police officer and one police vehicle was set on fire in the fighting outside the Martyrs’ Stadium.
Kinshasa police chief Sylvano Kasongo said about 40 people have been injured and 35 arrested.
Two rival factions have contested the leadership of the DRC’s Comico Muslim Federation for years.
While the case remains in court, the two parties remain at odds and occasionally come out with blows.
About 10 percent of the DRC’s population is Muslim, most concentrated in the east of the country.
But Kinshasa on the Congo River in the west of the sprawling Central African country has also traditionally seen massive celebrations for the end of the holy month of fasting Ramadan in public squares and on main roads.
(AFP)
