The High Military Court, sitting in a mobile court in Goma, will deliver its verdict next week in the trial of eleven military officers. The latter are being prosecuted for fleeing from the enemy, inciting soldiers to commit criminal acts, forgery and use of forgery. The public prosecutor had requested the death penalty against them.
This composition exercised this option at the hearing on Friday April 5 in Goma, after taking this matter under advisement.
These eleven officers are part of the 223rd battalion of the Rapid Reaction Unit (URR).
Among them are Colonel Patient Mushengezi, battalion commander and Lieutenant-Colonel Gabriel Paluku, second in command in charge of operations and intelligence within URR.
Both are charged by the military prosecutor’s office for inciting soldiers to commit acts contrary to military discipline and fleeing from the enemy in Lushangi/café on December 25.
The body of law is prosecuting the nine other military officers for fleeing from the enemy.
In their defenses, the lawyers for two main defendants argued before the High Court that the material elements constituting the complaints against them did not exist.
Alexis Olenga, one of the defendants’ lawyers, requested the outright acquittal of his clients.
At the end of last March, the public prosecutor requested the death penalty against these eleven FARDC officers.