{"id":8006,"date":"2026-03-23T21:58:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T21:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/8006\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T21:58:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T21:58:07","slug":"more-than-six-decades-after-patrice-lumumbas-assassination-an-ex-belgian-diplomat-will-stand-trial-in-his-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/8006\/","title":{"rendered":"More than six decades after Patrice Lumumba’s assassination, an ex-Belgian diplomat will stand trial in his death"},"content":{"rendered":"

Patrice Lumumba<\/a>, the Democratic Republic of Congo\u2019s first prime minister, was widely beloved in his nation for his advocacy of African liberation. After his brutal assassination following a coup led by Belgian-backed secessionists in 1961, Lumumba\u2019s body was dissolved in acid.<\/p>\n

Now, 65 years after Lumumba\u2019s killing, a man is set to stand trial<\/a> for war crimes related to his death.<\/p>\n

Etienne Davignon, 93, who was a former junior diplomat at the time of the assassination, faces charges of participating in the unlawful detention of Lumumba, depriving him of his right to a fair trial and subjecting him to \u201chumiliating and degrading treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davignon, who went on to become a vice president of the European Commission, also stands accused of being involved in the murders of two of Lumumba\u2019s staunchest allies, Maurice Mpolo and Joseph Okito. Both men were killed alongside Lumumba by a firing squad.<\/p>\n

A case years in the making<\/p>\n

Of the ten men accused of having a role in Lumumba\u2019s death, Davignon is the only surviving member of the group. Lumumba\u2019s family first presented a case in a 2011 lawsuit. <\/p>\n

Belgium, in an effort to shed parts of its colonial history, has apologized to Lumumba\u2019s family and Congo for its role in the beloved leader\u2019s death, saying it was morally responsible. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor over 65 years, there\u2019s been silence, there\u2019s been denial,\u201d Yema Lumumba, Lumumba\u2019s granddaughter, said<\/a> of the news that Davignon was set to stand trial. \u201cThis moment is telling us that the trial will break this pattern, and it sets a precedent. That sort of legal shield around the crimes committed during colonial time is starting to break.\u201d<\/p>\n

In June 1960, Patrice Lumumba was appointed prime minister of Congo, the first in the nation\u2019s history. However, his views on Africa\u2019s anti-colonial movement made him a target of Belgium, which considered him a threat to the country\u2019s influence and economic power in the region. In a short time, he fell out of favor with Belgium and the United States, with the latter country believing he was a communist.<\/p>\n

Two months after his appointment, he was ousted in a coup, after which he went into hiding. A 1975 U.S. Senate report revealed that the Central Intelligence Agency had established a plot to assassinate Lumumba, though the plan was not carried out.<\/p>\n

In 2022, Belgium returned the last remains of Lumumba to his family, a gold tooth. The tooth had been in the possession of the daughter of a former Belgian police commissioner in 2016 when it was seized.<\/p>\n

Lumumba remains a hero in Congo, as a statue of him stands in Kinshasa, and the date of his assassination is considered a national holiday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Patrice Lumumba, the Democratic Republic of Congo\u2019s first prime minister, was widely beloved in his nation for his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,5718],"class_list":{"0":"post-8006","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-belgium","8":"tag-belgium","9":"tag-congo"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116280734659759907","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8006","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=8006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}