Nearly nine years on, and one of Congo's most painful cases has finally reached a verdict.

It's taken almost a decade, but the Democratic Republic of Congo's High Military Court has now closed the book on the killing of two UN investigators. All 54 defendants charged over the murder of American Michael Sharp and Swedish-Chilean Zaida Catalan have been sentenced to death.

If you remember, the pair disappeared in March 2017 while they were in Central Kasai looking into mass violence. The court found they were intercepted, branded traitors, and led into a trap before being executed.

One name that keeps coming up is Colonel Jean de Dieu Mambweni. He first got ten years inside, but on appeal the judges decided he was central to luring the experts to their deaths, so they've now handed him the death penalty as well.

Now, while families have welcomed the ruling, not everyone is convinced this is the end of it. The National Human Rights Commission has criticised the process, saying senior figures suspected of masterminding the killings were never even put in the dock. And the victims' families are saying the same thing — this appeal verdict is a step, not the full story, and they still want a deeper investigation to find out who really ordered it.

So yes, a historic sentence, but the questions about accountability higher up the chain haven't gone away.

story via cbinews.tv

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