A sketch from the opening day of the trial of former Congolese warlord Roger Lumbala at the Paris criminal court, November 12, 2025. BENOIT PEYRUCQ / AFP
It was just past 5 pm when Marc Sommerer, president of the Paris criminal court, issued a summons for Roger Lumbala, who had been held since morning in the cells beneath the Paris courthouse, to attend his sentencing. The former Congolese warlord, who had stormed out of the courtroom on the first day of his trial on November 12, was consequently brought to the defendants' dock to hear the verdict.
On Monday, December 15, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Tried under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows a state to prosecute the perpetrators of serious crimes regardless of where they were committed, Lumbala, age 67, was found guilty of complicity in crimes against humanity after about eight hours of deliberation.
This was the first time a person was convicted by a foreign national court for crimes committed in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Before him, three warlords (Thomas Lubanga, Germain Katanga and Bosco Ntaganda) had been convicted by the International Criminal Court.
"I am truly relieved by this verdict," said Philippe (a pseudonym, as the criminal court requested anonymity for witnesses and plaintiffs). "I thank the French justice system, which tried Roger Lumbala, a warlord whose men killed my father on October 26, 2002. For me, this trial marks the end of impunity."
