About 50 people were sentenced to death, many in absentia, in Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday in connection with the murders of U.N. experts Zaida Catalan and Michael Sharp in 2017, a defence lawyer in the case said.
A local immigration official was among those given death sentences while an army colonel was given 10 years in prison, said Tresor Kabangu, who represented several defendants in the trial. Congo has observed a moratorium on the death penalty since 2003 so those convicted will serve life sentences.
Human rights groups say investigators have ignored the potential involvement of higher-level officials, and Catalan and Sharp's families said they did not believe the ultimate masterminds had been brought to justice.
