Thirty people have been sentenced to death over anti-police protests in DR Congo | Conflicting Issues
Thirty people have been sentenced to death in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) after a one-day sentencing hearing for participating in anti-police protests marking the end of Ramadan capital.
A police officer was killed in Kinshasa on Thursday as Islamist religious groups fought for their right to celebrate the end of Ramadan in a large stadium.
Lawyer Chief Tshipamba said 30 people had been sentenced to death in a case that began on Friday, a day after the violence. The artwork confirmed the verdict.
The DRC has not handed down the death penalty since the government suspended the government in 2003. Since then, the death sentences have been changed to life imprisonment.
Many were injured
The provincial government, in addition to the police force, has killed several people and injured a police vehicle set ablaze during a fight outside Martyrs Stadium.
Kinshasa police chief Sylvano Kasongo said at least 40 people were injured and 35 arrested.
Two factions that have been at loggerheads for years have been criticizing the federal leadership of the Comico Muslim party in Comico. The two sides are in conflict and are sometimes beaten.
About 10 percent of the population in the DRC is Muslim, mostly in the eastern part of the country.
But Kinshasa on the Congo River west of the vast Central African continent apparently also has many festivals at the end of the holy month of Ramadan in public places and on the main roads.
