Open letter demands Belgium act to protect military expert sentenced to death in DRC
More than 400 magistrates, professors, academics and civil servants have signed an open letter calling on the Belgian government to do everything in its power to ensure that Belgian-Congolese military expert Jean-Jacques Wondo receives proper medical care. Wondo was sentenced to death in the Democratic Republic of Congo last year.
The military court in Kinshasa ruled in September that Wondo was the “intellectual perpetrator” of a failed coup in the DRC last May.
His lawyers suspect he was the victim of a reckoning within the Congolese intelligence services after he was asked from within the regime to collaborate on a reform as a consultant. The lawyers also say that the file contains nothing to prove Wondo’s involvement.
"All the evidence against him was dismantled by the defence"
The letter, an initiative of his colleagues at the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, warns of Wondo’s poor health, saying that he “suffers from fever, constant sweating, pain in his ribs, has difficulty breathing and vomits blood”.
The signatories call on Belgium to demand that Wondo be urgently admitted and treated, be given an ad hoc examination to establish that he was not poisoned, and that all medical reports prepared during his detention be made accessible.
An appeal court ruling in the case is scheduled for Friday. In recent weeks, “all the evidence against him was dismantled by the defence”, the letter writers say.
Wondo’s situation will be discussed this week in the European Parliament, with a vote on a resolution due to follow on Thursday.
A protest calling for the release of Jean-Jacques Wondo, Brussels, October 2024 © BELGA PHOTO NICOLAS MAETERLINCK
Related news
