European Union appeals to Congo to commute death penalty sentences

Jan 16, 2003 

ATHENS, Greece - The European Union  on Thursday appealed to Congo to commute death penalty sentences for at least 30 people, including a cousin and top aide and to former President Laurent Kabila.

 None of those executions � ordered Jan. 7 by a five-judge military tribunal � are known to have been carried out so far.

"The European Union, motivated by its interest against the imposition and the implementation of the death penalty ... appealed for the commutation by the president of the republic of the death sentence," the EU said in a statement issued by the Greek presidency.

Human rights activists said this week Congo has executed at least 15 prisoners since lifting a longtime death penalty ban in November. Congolese authorities denied any knowledge of any executions.

Congo's government signed on to a U.N.-sponsored moratorium on the death penalty in 1997. The lifting of the ban last year was widely seen as linked to the military trial of 135 people accused of conspiring in the January 2001 assassination of Kabila.

His son, Joseph, is currently president.