Six men have been sentenced in a Congo court to spend the rest of their lives in prison for the murders of the Italian ambassador, his bodyguard and driver.

Ambassador Luca Attanasio, bodyguard Vittorio Iacovacci, and Congolese driver Mustapha Milambo died on 22 February 2021 while they were on their way to a project under the auspices of the World Food Program (WFP) near the city of Goma.

A lawyer representing Italy, Boniface Balamage, told Reuters that five of the convicts were already in prison, while the sixth was free and was sentenced in absentia.

According to Congolese authorities, two cars traveling in the convoy were ambushed. The Milambo driver was killed. Six passengers were abducted. Soldiers and rangers tracked down the group and a shootout ensued in which the six shot two Italians, according to the indictment.

Prosecutors in Congo applied for the death penalty in court in the capital Kinshasa on Wednesday this week. The defendants denied in court that they had committed any wrongdoing and claimed that the confessions they made were initially forced through torture.

Congo quickly claimed that the Rwandan Hutu militia FDLR was behind the attack. The group itself has denied involvement in the case, and condemned what it called a cowardly attack.

Previously, prosecutors had described the defendants as criminals who planned to kidnap the ambassador and demanded a million dollar ransom. The amount is equivalent to over NOK 10 million at today’s exchange rates.

(© NTB)