The ambassador of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in Brussels was summoned to Foreign Affairs on Monday following the death sentence, on Friday in Kinshasa, of Belgian Jean-Jacques Wondo and 36 other defendants, for an “attempted coup d’état” that the DRC army says it foiled in May. The information from La Libre was confirmed to Belga by Foreign Affairs.
This is not the first diplomatic move in this matter. This Sunday, Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib spoke with her Congolese counterpart, Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner. She expressed her “deep concern” following this judgment. “I insisted on Belgium’s absolute opposition to the death penalty. The right to defense must always be respected,” commented Ms. Lahbib on the X network.
Shortly after the announcement of the conviction, Foreign Affairs expressed its surprise, “given the few elements provided during the trial”. They described this death sentence as “particularly worrying”. Belgium has already denounced the lifting of the moratorium on the death penalty in the Democratic Republic of Congo on several occasions.
The convicts were found guilty of criminal association and attack, but also of terrorism, except for one of them. Among them, six are of foreign nationality (three Americans born in the United States, as well as the Belgian Jean-Jacques Wondo, a Briton and a Canadian, all three naturalized Congolese).
