{"id":6735,"date":"2026-03-17T17:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T17:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/6735\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T17:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T17:12:08","slug":"former-belgian-diplomat-first-to-stand-trial-over-1961-murder-of-congos-lumumba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/6735\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Belgian diplomat first to stand trial over 1961 murder of Congo\u2019s Lumumba"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Brussels<\/a> court on Tuesday ordered a \u200bformer high-profile Belgian diplomat to stand trial<\/a> over the assassination of Patrice Lumumba<\/a>, the first prime minister of Congo, in a final attempt to shed light on the still murky circumstances surrounding his murder.<\/p>\n

Lumumba, who became prime minister of \u200bthe country now \u200ccalled the Democratic Republic of Congo upon its independence<\/a> from Belgium<\/a> in 1960, was ousted \u2060from power just months later and killed by Belgian-backed secessionist rebels<\/a> on January 16, 1961.<\/p>\n

Read moreDR Congo inters independence hero Lumumba\u2019s remains after national homage<\/a><\/p>\n

A Belgian parliamentary investigation into Lumumba\u2019s killing concluded in 2002 that Belgium was \u201cmorally \u200cresponsible\u201d for his death. But the trial of 93-year-old Count \u00c9tienne Davignon, a former EU commissioner \u2060who was a junior diplomat at the time, constitutes the first prosecution related to the murder.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors say Davignon, who is accused of war crimes<\/a>, participated in the unlawful detention or transfer of Lumumba and \u200bdeprived him of his right to an impartial trial. They say he subjected Lumumba \u200cto \u201chumiliating and degrading treatment\u201d.<\/p>\n

He is also accused of involvement in the murders of two of Lumumba\u2019s political allies, Maurice Mpolo and Joseph Okito.<\/p>\n

All the other suspects in the case have died.<\/p>\n

Davignon was not present in the courtroom on Tuesday, \u200cand his lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

\u2018Search for truth\u2019 <\/p>\n

Though his government lasted just three months, Lumumba became an \u200banti-colonial icon as African nations pushed for independence from their European masters in the 1960s. He remains a folk hero even today.<\/p>\n

His murder marked a dark turn for Congo, which boasts vast mineral resources including copper, cobalt, \u200bgold and uranium<\/a> but whose people have lived under dictatorship and the menace of deadly armed conflict for most \u200bof its post-independence history.<\/p>\n

Though he publicly professed his neutrality, Lumumba\u2019s overtures to the \u200bSoviet Union at the height of the Cold War<\/a> alarmed governments in the West, and some historians have accused Washington\u2019s Central Intelligence Agency of involvement in his death.<\/p>\n

Read moreFrom Khrushchev\u2019s KGB to Putin: the deep roots of Russian influence in Africa<\/a><\/p>\n

Lumumba\u2019s \u200bsurviving family members initially brought the case, which has since been taken up by Belgian federal prosecutors.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a step in the right direction,\u201d Lumumba\u2019s granddaughter Yema Lumumba told Reuters after the ruling. \u201cWhat we want is to search for truth and establish different responsibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following his Congo assignment, Davignon, who was born into the Belgian nobility, went on to become a well-known \u2060diplomat as the first head of the International Energy Agency and a European Commissioner between 1977 and 1985.<\/p>\n

He later served as chairman of the \u2060Belgian holding company Societe \u200bGenerale de Belgique and sat on the boards of many listed companies.<\/p>\n

Davignon was elevated to the rank of a count by Belgium\u2019s King Philippe in 2018.<\/p>\n

(FRANCE 24 with Reuters)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Brussels court on Tuesday ordered a \u200bformer high-profile Belgian diplomat to stand trial over the assassination of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,4872,69,4773,4656,4873],"class_list":{"0":"post-6735","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-belgium","8":"tag-belgium","9":"tag-dr-congo","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-murder","12":"tag-patrice-lumumba","13":"tag-trial"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116245636508175043","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}