Capital punishment in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is legal; however, the nation has not carried out any executions since 2003. Even in the absence of carrying out executions, there are still death sentences handed down in the country.
Execution methods and death penalty law
Per a decree passed in 1898, people found guilty of civilian crimes are executed by hanging, while military crimes are punished with execution by shooting. The DRC penal code permits the President to designate the method of execution. In 1936, a law was passed forbidding the photographing of executions; public executions are forbidden in the country without the President's approval.
Colonial history
In 1921, Simon Kimbangu, a Congolese religious leader, was tried by a military court for "undermining public security" and "disturbing the peace." He was not offered legal counsel. He was convicted and sentenced to death on 3 October 1921, but before his execution could be carried out, King Albert I of Belgium commuted his sentence to life. Kimbangu died in a prison in Lubumbashi (then known Elizabethville) in 1951 after serving 30 years of a life sentence.
Pre-moratorium developments
On 28 January 1998, United Nations officials published a report stating that 21 executions had been carried out in Kinshasa, the first mass executions since then-President Laurent-Désiré Kabila took power. Although the condemned consisted of both civilians and military men, and although the crimes were civilian crimes such as armed robbery and murder, all of the executions were carried out by firing squad. Following the executions, the military tribunal which had condemned the men issued a statement declaring that the executions should be viewed "as a solemn warning to any potential delinquent."
In May 1999, Amnesty International published a report revealing that the DRC had seen at least 46 executions since April 1999. The report also found that there were over 100 executions in the DRC in 1998 alone and that, in 1998, the DRC was only second to China in the number of known executions that year. There were a reported 13 executions for crimes ranging from armed robbery to murder in Mbuji-Mayi, Kasaï-Oriental, on 13 April 1999, as well as 20 executions of soldiers in Lubumbashi on 6 May; the soldiers had been convicted of military offenses, including defection. There were also 15 executions confirmed to have taken place in Kinshasa on 13 May, with all of the condemned having been convicted of violent crimes. Amnesty reported that many of the trials preceding those executions were unfair, with many of the convicted not having access to legal counsel, and for those who did have access to attorneys, many of their lawyers did not have sufficient time to prepare for the case or examine the evidence against their clients. Some of the executions took place within a few days of the end of the trial, and others took place within hours of the end of the trial, leading to doubts that then-President Kabila had ample time to consider any clemency appeals. Only one inmate who appealed for clemency, a 15-year-old child soldier, received a commutation of their sentence from then-President Kabila. Amnesty also found that military courts were increasingly and inappropriately being used in civilian trials for the purposes of political repression, including for nonviolent protests against the DRC's government.
In a later report, Amnesty also found that 11 people had been publicly executed in Mbuji-Mayi on 28 July 1999 despite the long-standing law forbidding public executions. The same report found that one woman, Charlotte Ngoy, was scheduled to be executed and escaped the death penalty minutes before her execution was scheduled to occur; Ngoy had been sentenced to death for criminal association because she had lived with an armed robber.
In 2001, six Congolese soldiers were executed. Their identities and the crimes of which they were convicted were not revealed. In September of the same year, 13 soldiers were convicted of plotting to overthrow the government and were sentenced to death, but none of them were executed, and the Minister of Human Rights, Ntumba Luaba, announced that their death sentences would be commuted to prison terms.
Recent developments
The last executions to take place in the Democratic Republic of the Congo occurred in January 2003. It was a mass execution of 15 people; the British Broadcasting Corporation reported that eight of those executed were by mistake.
While death sentences are still routinely handed down in the nation, they are frequently commuted to life imprisonment.