Two men are to go on trial in the Democratic Republic of Congo for the kidnap and murder of two UN experts, a military prosecutor said Saturday, denying security forces involvement in the deaths.
Authorities arrested the suspects last month the killings in March of American Michael Sharp and Swedish-Chilean Zaida Catalan in central Kasai, where hundreds of people have died in violence since September.
The bodies of the pair were found two weeks after they were kidnapped March 12 while trying to investigate reports of more than 40 mass graves in the region.
Military prosecutor Colonel Odon Makutu told a press conference Saturday in Kinshasa that a 10-week judicial probe had been completed and that the two suspects would go on trial “soon.”
Makutu said the two men had been charged with the “war crime of murder, war crime through mutilation, terrorism (and) participation in an insurrectionist movement.”
He said no member of the security forces had been implicated and added that the trial would be held in Kananga, capital of Kasai central province.
A total of 14 other people have been investigated over possible involvement in the killings.
Hundreds of people have died in recent months in violence in central Kasai and more than a million people have been displaced.
A violent tribal uprising erupted in the region after last year’s death in August of traditional chieftain Kamwina Nsapu.
The UN Security Council has urged Kinshasa to cooperate with its commission of enquiry into the killings of the two experts and the mass graves.
The UN has accused rebels loyal to Nsapu of recruiting child soldiers and committing atrocities while also saying that Democratic Republic of Congo troops have used disproportionate force against the militiamen.
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