DRC. MAN CONDEMNED TO DEATH OVER KABILA’S MURDER DIES

April 4, 2005: Nico Bavurha, one of the men sentenced to death in the Democratic Republic of Congo for the assassination of Laurent Kabila, died on April 1 at Mama yemo hospital in Kinshasa where he had been transferred following a long period of illness in prison.
The funeral of Nico, whom Hands Off Cain (HOC) had met during its visit to Makala maximum security prison, took place on April 3.
He was one of the 30 people sentenced to death in January 2003 over the murder of the then President Laurent Kabila in January 2001.
On June 28, 2003 during a meeting with an HOC delegation in Kinshasa, President Joseph Kabila declared that he would not authorise any executions, not even those of the men condemned for the assassination of his father, until Parliament had taken a stand on the death penalty. (Sources: HOC, 04/04/2005)