Congolese lady executed for killing a young girl

According to her counsel, a Congolese lady has been given the death penalty for the murder of a girl whose dismembered body was discovered beside a river in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

After the body of the five-year-old girl was found in Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province, on August 1, Ombeni Malekera, a 30-year-old mother of three, was detained on Thursday.

The youngster had joined other youngsters from the neighborhood at Ms. Malekera’s house for a birthday celebration three days prior.

On Tuesday, she went back to play with a young child there before leaving. About 40 minutes later, his body was located. According to Ms. Malekera’s attorney, Me, Ms. Malekera was suspected, but “we do not know on what evidence.”

She was “sentenced to death” on Saturday night following two hearings, according to him, after being tried by the Bukavu High Court starting on Friday.

“We are disappointed by the court’s ruling, which was rendered in the lack of any evidence of our client’s culpability. We immediately filed an appeal,” continued Bauni-Masimango.

The attorney believed that “there was no serious investigation into this case” and that no one had been able to identify “when, where, or under what circumstances” the murder had been committed or that they had seen her conduct it. He further questioned why, given that “the medical report (autopsy) was not yet available,” justice had permitted burial of the girl’s body.

Her husband, Christian Mufariji, was prosecuted for “criminal association” in this case but was “acquitted, for lack of evidence,” according to Mr. Bauni-Masimango.

According to David Bugamba Amani, an attorney representing the kid’s family, the civil party is “satisfied” with the verdict because it “was able to relieve the family of the child, at the end of a trial of an educational nature for the community.”

He remembered that, although still in place in the DRC, the death penalty is now routinely commuted to life in prison.

Children and adults are abducted in South Kivu, as well as the rest of the violent eastern DRC, sometimes for ransom by armed individuals and militias. There have also been occasional cases of child mutilation reported.