Brussels, 17 March 2026. Today, the Council Chamber of the Brussels Court of First Instance decided to open a criminal trial against former Belgian diplomat and senior state official Étienne Davignon for his alleged role in the abduction and transfer that led to the murder of Patrice Émery Lumumba.
In a decision of major significance, the Court went beyond the submissions of the Federal Prosecutor by extending the scope of the trial to also cover the assassinations of Maurice Mpolo and Joseph Okito, who were executed alongside Lumumba on 17 January 1961. After more than six decades of impunity, the last living alleged perpetrator will now be brought before the Brussels court to answer for war crimes connected to these assassinations.
Lumumba was the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s first democratically elected Prime Minister and remains an iconic figure of African independence and anti-colonial movements worldwide. Maurice Mpolo, Minister of Youth and Sports, and Joseph Okito, Vice-President of the Senate, were likewise central political figures in the newly independent Congolese state.
The Lumumba family welcomes this historic decision, which opens a long-denied path toward truth, accountability, and recognition for a crime that has profoundly shaped both Congolese and Belgian history:
„We welcome the opening of this trial as a significant step: one that acknowledges, however belatedly, the weight of decisions made against the life of Patrice Emery Lumumba. We do not use the word 'justice' lightly. Many who lived through those events, who carried both the truth and the silence of what happened, are no longer with us. That so much time has passed is itself a wound. And yet, we are here.
What changes today is that the legal system of Belgium begins, at last, to confront its own responsibilities for acts committed in the name of colonial rule. For our family, this is not the end of a long fight, it is the beginning of a reckoning that history has long demanded. For Congo, for Africa, and for all former colonies, we believe this moment carries meaning beyond our name. It affirms what we have always known: the crimes of colonial rule are not abstractions. They have faces, and families, and nations that suffer the consequences of the assassination of a vision for them. We will follow these proceedings with all the needed vigilance. What we ask of this court is simple: the truth, spoken aloud, in the open, on the record of justice and history,“ says the Lumumba family.
In January 2026, ten additional members of the Lumumba family – all grandchildren of Patrice Lumumba – joined the proceedings as civil parties, underscoring the intergenerational nature of the demand for justice, more than sixty years after the assassination.
The decision marks a historic moment in the pursuit of accountability for colonial-era crimes. While the consequences of colonial violence persist to this day, those responsible have often remained shielded by time, institutional inertia, and political reluctance. For the first time, the murder of an African independence leader allegedly involving representatives of a former colonial power will be examined by a criminal court.
“This decision confirms that the passage of time cannot erase the legal responsibility for the gravest crimes,” says Christophe Marchand, lawyer for the Lumumba family. “For decades, the assassination of Patrice Lumumba has been recognised as a political crime of immense historical importance, yet it remained outside the reach of criminal justice. Today, the Belgian courts have affirmed that such crimes must ultimately be examined in a court of law.”
Jehosheba Bennett, also representing the Lumumba family, adds: “Decolonisation was not only a political process — it was also a period marked by violence governed by international law. The court’s decision sends a clear message: grave violations of the Geneva Conventions committed in that context are not merely historical events. They are war crimes that can and must be prosecuted.”
“The court’s decision is a decisive step for the right of the Lumumba family to truth and justice," says Wolfgang Kaleck, General Secretary of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) and legal counsel for the Lumumba family. “Yes, the trial may come 65 years after the crime, and many suspects have died. For a long time, not a single individual or state – whether Belgium, the Congo, or the US – has been held accountable for Lumumba’s brutal murder and for countless other colonial crimes. But bringing Étienne Davignon to trial after decades of impunity is a historical precedent in criminal justice for European colonialism.”
The trial is expected to begin in 2027.
