By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Prosecutors have closed the case of murder charges against six men accused of killing former Italian ambassador to the DRC, Luca Attanasio in 2021, asking the court to hand a death sentence against the defendants.
This comes as the five of the six suspects on Saturday during a hearing in DRC capital, Kinshasa asked the court to discharge and acquit them, claiming innocent of the charges against them.
Italy’s former ambassador to the DRC Attanasio, was among three people killed on the 22nd of February, 2021, when a UN convoy was ambushed in the country’s eastern region.
“The defendants say that it is not them, the public prosecutor has not been able to demonstrate this, and even less so the civil party. We need the physical evidence, we need to establish that the person is dead”, the defence counsel, Joseph Amzati said.
“There is a serious question mark hanging over the degree of criminal responsibility that would be brought upon the defendants with the perpetration of the crime and the consequence is logical: they must be acquitted!”, he demanded further.
A lawyer representing Italy said that Rome does not support capital punishment and would prefer prison terms.
“The Italian Republic, as a civil party in this case, is campaigning for the abolition of the death penalty at an international level.
“Italy asks that the accused, despite their wickedness, should instead be sentenced to imprisonment and not the death penalty”, civil party lawyer representing Italy, Boniface Balamage, requested.
The tribunal is expected to decide on the matter within ten days.
