US EditionCongo’s First PM Lumumba Was Assassinated in 1961, Now a Retired Diplomat Faces Trial in Belgium
The trial follows a 2011 complaint and resumed proceedings in 2025, addressing Belgium's alleged moral responsibility in Lumumba’s 1961 assassination.
- On January 20 this year in Brussels, the Brussels Court of First Instance sent 93-year-old former diplomat Etienne Davignon to trial over Patrice Lumumba's detention and transfer to the Katanga region.
- After Congo's 1960 independence, Lumumba's family filed complaints that revived the case, and a 2001 inquiry said Belgian ministers bore moral responsibility for his death.
- Gruesome evidence includes the January 1961 execution by firing squad of Lumumba and two associates, and the 2022 return of a gold-capped tooth kept as a macabre souvenir.
- Several Congolese citizens welcomed the court's decision while others said the trial came too late, and ten members of Lumumba's grandchild generation joined as civil parties with Etienne Davignon the last of ten Belgians accused.
- Davignon was a trainee diplomat during Lumumba's detention and later became vice‑President of the European Commission; the case involves Congolese forces tacitly backed by Belgian state involvement.
15 Articles
15 Articles
Belgian Etienne Davignon, a former diplomat and vice-president of the European Commission, will have to stand trial for war crimes related to the assassination of Patrice Lumumba 65 years ago.
Ex-Belgian Diplomat Faces Trial Over Lumumba Assassination
Etienne Davignon took part in war crimes, including the “humiliating and degrading” treatment of the anti-colonial leader, prosecutors have said A Belgian court has ordered former diplomat Etienne Davignon to stand trial over his alleged role in the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s first prime minister and an anti-colonial figure, more than six decades ago. Davignon, 93, is accused of participation in war …
Belgian ex-diplomat to stand trial for complicity in assassination of first Congolese PM
Former Belgian diplomat, the 93-year-old Etienne Davignon, has been ordered to stand trial for his role in the murder of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba. Lumumba was an independence trailblazer for the Congolese Republic, now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Congo won its independence from colonial Belgium back in June 1960, after which Lumumba became the first elected Prime Minister. However, his time in the role was cut drasti…
Congolese citizens welcome Belgian court trial in Lumumba case
Several Congolese citizens welcomed a Belgian court's decision to put 93-year-old former diplomat Etienne Davignon on trial over the killing of independence hero Patrice Lumumba in 1961. Africanews correspondent Chris Ocamringa reports from Kinshasa.
For decades, he was a great name for Belgian politics. But at 93 years old, Viscount Étienne Davignon was caught up in the role he would have played during Congolese independence and in his supposed involvement in the decisions that led to the assassination of Patrice Lumumba in 1961.
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