Congo-Kinshasa: Shock At Death Sentences Imposed On Friends for Murder of UN Radio Journalist

press release

Reporters Without Borders is stunned by the four death sentences imposed yesterday by a military court in the eastern city of Bukavu for the murder of UN radio journalist Serge Maheshe at the end of a trial riddled with absurdities. Two of the four people sentenced to death were close friends of Maheshe who were with him when he was gunned down on a Bukavu street on 13 June.

"We never imagined that the Bukavu military tribunal would take its incoherence and denial of justice this far," the press freedom organisation said. "This insane verdict was based solely on the contradictory claims of two persons unknown to anyone, and was not supported by any material evidence or motive. Other theories were given little attention or were not investigated at all."

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