Fifteen people were executed in secret on January 7...

Fifteen people were executed in secret on January 7 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Amnesty and MISNA reported. These are the first executions known to have taken place since December 2000. The executions took place just hours before 30 people were sentenced to death by the Cour d'ordre militaire (COM), Military Order Court for their alleged role in the assassination of Laurent-Désiré Kabila in January 2001, Amnesty said. "The executed men were not connected to the Kabila trial, but we are afraid that the next to be targeted by [military prosecutor Charles Alamba] Mungabo will be the 30 convicted of Kabila's murder," an aid worker told MISNA news agency. Madiata Richard, Silanga Matchio Patrick, Mabiala, Mbuyu, Kindeke, Ndoko, Muaka, Kasongo, Lingalo, Kalamba, Souze, Vunda, Viambu, Mabila Mpasi and Nyakonnya Bokele were executed by firing squad. They had been on death row at the capital Kinshasa's main prison, the Centre pénitentiaire et de réeducation de Kinshasa (CPRK), Kinshasa Penitentiary and Re-education Centre. They were accused of crimes such as subversion of the state, treason, armed robbery and participation in organised crime. The 15 individuals were taken from their cells to a military camp close to Kinshasa's Ndjili airport on the outskirts of the city during the night of 6 to 7 January. After being executed, the 15 men were buried in a hurry in a mass grave in the cemetery of Mikonga, in the Congolese capital. MISNA sources said that in the days immediately following the shooting, which was heard by residents living nearby, body parts were visible protruding from the earth. The execution was ordered by the COM, that since its creation in 1997 has been responsible for the execution of some 200 individuals. The 15 people executed on January 7 will not have had the right to appeal against their death sentences and will therefore have been entirely reliant on President Joseph Kabila exercising his prerogative to commute their sentences, Amnesty said. It is not known if any formal petition for clemency was submitted to, or considered by, the president, as is required under Congolese law. These executions were the first known to have taken place since the lifting on 23 September 2002 of a moratorium on executions, which President Joseph Kabila had personally committed himself to respecting in an address to the UN Human Rights Commission in March 2001.