Democratic Republic of Congo President Fèlix Tshisekedi has strongly defended his government’s wicked move to reintroduce the death sentence in the country.
The Congolese government recently lifted the moratorium prohibiting the execution or sentencing of offenders to death which is a strategy to eliminate those that oppose it’s indiscriminate and incompetent system of governance.
The decision by Tshisekedi and his government has been widely criticized by both local and international organizations who have described the move as a huge abrogation of the human right to life.
However, Tshisekedi has defended the reintroduction of the death penalty which he describes as a necessary measure in response to the “tragedy” that the country is experiencing, marked by decades of armed conflicts, particularly in the East.
“We are facing a cowardly and barbaric aggression, fomented by external powers and exacerbated by negative forces both foreign and domestic,” Tshisekedi told the audience at the launch of his book held at the Collège des Bernardins in Paris.
“Faced with these persistent threats, the DRC cannot afford any passivity. The lifting of the moratorium on the death penalty is a measure of last resort to protect our people and our territorial integrity,” he explained.
The United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, has already expressed his reservations about the move during his visit to the DRC, stressing that “the death penalty should be abolished everywhere in the world.”
Likewise, several diplomatic missions, including Canada, Norway, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, jointly criticized the Congolese decision, calling it contrary to human dignity and highlighting the risks of irreversible judicial errors.
