A Brussels court has ruled that a former Belgian diplomat, 93-year-old Étienne Davignon, should stand trial over alleged complicity in the 1961 murder of Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of the newly independent Congo.
Davignon is the only person still alive among 10 Belgians the Lumumba family accuses of involvement in the killing. The court charged him with participation in war crimes; the decision follows a surprise referral by the Brussels prosecutor last June and can be appealed. Davignon, a former vice-president of the European Commission, has denied the charges.
The Lumumba family welcomed the ruling. “For our family, this is not the end of a long fight, it is the beginning of a reckoning that history has long demanded,” they said. Yema Lumumba, a granddaughter of the slain leader, told reporters that the passage of time “does not mean it is done” and called on the Belgian legal system to confront colonial-era responsibilities.
Lawyers for the family said the decision sets a historic precedent for criminal justice in relation to crimes allegedly committed under European colonial rule. If the trial proceeds, Davignon would be the first Belgian official to face justice over Lumumba’s assassination. The court expanded the scope of the case beyond the prosecutor’s referral to include Lumumba’s associates Maurice Mpolo and Joseph Okito, who were killed alongside him.
Davignon faces three counts, according to the Brussels court: the illegal transfer of Lumumba and his associates from Léopoldville (now Kinshasa) to Katanga; the “humiliating and degrading treatment” of the men; and depriving them of a fair trial. Christophe Marchand, a lawyer for the family, said the decision “confirms that the passage of time cannot erase the legal responsibility for the gravest crimes.”
Lumumba, aged 35, was tortured and shot by firing squad in January 1961 along with Okito and Mpolo. The killings were carried out by Katangan separatists with the support of Belgian mercenaries. Davignon had arrived in the then Belgian Congo in 1960 as a 28-year-old diplomatic intern on the eve of independence and later held numerous senior political and business roles.
Davignon did not attend the hearing at the Palais de Justice in Brussels. His lawyer, Johan Verbist, said it was too soon to comment and that he would analyse possibilities for an appeal. Verbist previously rejected war crimes claims during a closed hearing in January and argued that too much time had passed to judge the case.
A 2001 Belgian parliamentary inquiry found that Belgian ministers bore a moral responsibility for events that led to Lumumba’s death. In 2022 Belgium returned a gold-capped tooth to the Lumumba family that one of the Belgians involved had kept as a macabre souvenir. At the ceremony, then-prime minister Alexander De Croo reiterated Belgium’s “moral responsibility,” saying ministers and officials should have realised that transferring Lumumba to Katanga put his life at risk and should have refused assistance.
Lawyers for the family say that if an appeal is unsuccessful, a trial could begin in January 2027. While there have been successful reparations claims against former colonial powers, experts supporting the family say this could be the first criminal trial of a state actor over a political murder committed during colonial rule. Marchand noted it is rare for a former colonial state to address alleged colonial crimes in its own courts, even many years later.
