A portrait of slain Congolese independence leader Patrice Lumumba is carried as his remains leave for Shilatembo where the leader was killed along with two of his compatriots, at the airport in Lubumbashi, June 26, 2022. GUERCHOM NDEBO / AFP
A Belgian court will hold a hearing on Tuesday, January 20, on whether a former senior diplomat should go on trial over the 1961 killing of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba.
The family of the independence icon has been pushing for the past 15 years for what they say is a long-overdue legal reckoning over the complicity of Belgian officials in his murder.
"This is not about revenge, but about a thirst for knowledge," Roland Lumumba, one of Patrice's sons, told Agence France-Presse (AFP). "Millions of people would like to know the truth."
Some 65 years after Lumumba was executed and his body dissolved in acid by separatists with the help of mercenaries from former colonial power Belgium, only one ex-official is still alive to face justice.
