{"id":447963,"date":"2026-03-18T14:41:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T13:41:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/03\/18\/omicidio-lumumba-il-belgio-fa-i-conti-con-la-storia-a-processo-lex-diplomatico-e-commissario-ue-davignon\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T16:39:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T15:39:49","slug":"lumumba-murder-belgium-comes-to-terms-with-its-history-former-diplomat-and-eu-commissioner-davignon-stands-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/03\/18\/lumumba-murder-belgium-comes-to-terms-with-its-history-former-diplomat-and-eu-commissioner-davignon-stands-trial\/","title":{"rendered":"Lumumba murder: Belgium comes to terms with its history: former diplomat and EU Commissioner Davignon stands trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 Belgium has not yet come to terms with its colonial\u2014and post-colonial\u2014past<\/strong> in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.<\/strong> Yesterday (17 March), the Brussels Criminal Court committed to trial<\/a> \u00c9tienne Davignon<\/strong>, a former Belgian diplomat and European Commissioner between 1977 and 1985<\/strong>, for his alleged role in the unlawful detention<\/strong> of the first leader of independent Congo, Patrice Lumumba<\/strong>, and in his subsequent transfer to the secessionist region of Katanga<\/strong>, where he was killed in early 1961<\/strong>. In particular, the Federal Prosecutor accuses Davignon of the offences of illegal detention and transfer of a prisoner of war<\/strong>, as well as deprival of his right to a fair trial<\/strong> and the infliction of humiliating and degrading treatment<\/strong>: the prosecution\u2019s argument is that the former Belgian diplomat, whilst not having been directly involved in Lumumba\u2019s assassination, was aware of the intention to transfer him to Katanga (where the likelihood of him being eliminated by his main internal enemies was high) and did nothing to prevent it<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

As leader of the Congolese National Movement (MNC)<\/strong>, Lumumba was the leading figure in the struggle for Congo\u2019s independence<\/strong> between the late 1950s and early 1960s. In June 1960, once the country had gained independence, he won the first free elections<\/strong> in the history of the Congo and was appointed Prime Minister<\/strong>. Lumumba\u2019s strongly anti-colonial stance seriously jeopardised Belgium\u2019s ability to maintain its political and economic influence over the country and its vast natural resources. Thus, a few months after his election, in September 1960, a coup d\u2019\u00e9tat, supported by the Belgian government and carried out by General Joseph Mobutu, <\/strong>led to Lumumba\u2019s removal from office, his abduction,<\/span> and, finally, his transfer to Katanga. Under the leadership of the secessionist<\/a> and pro-Belgian leader Mo\u00efse Tshomb\u00e9<\/strong>, government officials in the region were notoriously hostile towards Lumumba, and on 17 January 1961, they killed him and then dissolved his body in acid<\/b><\/a>.<\/p>\n

 In 2000, after decades of virtual silence regarding Belgium\u2019s involvement in the affair, a parliamentary commission of inquiry<\/strong> found the country\u2019s government at the time \u201cmorally responsible\u201d for what had happened to Lumumba. In essence, this meant that, although there was no evidence proving the Belgian government\u2019s direct involvement in the Congolese leader\u2019s murder, some of its officials stationed in the Congo had done nothing to prevent him from being killed<\/strong> after his arrest and handover to the Katanga secessionists. It was precisely in the wake of this parliamentary inquiry that, in 2011, Lumumba\u2019s relatives filed a complaint for war crimes<\/strong>, which triggered the current investigation by the Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office. Of the eleven Belgian officials under investigation, the only one still alive is 93-year-old Davignon, who, at the time of the events, was undertaking a diplomatic traineeship<\/strong> in Congo. The former European Commissioner\u2014who has always denied any involvement \u2014will thus become the first and only defendant<\/strong> in a criminal trial concerning the abduction and murder of the Congolese national hero. <\/p>\n

Whilst Davignon\u2019s lawyers chose not to comment on the decision to commit the case for trial, Lumumba\u2019s relatives immediately called a press conference to emphasise the importance of this landmark decision \u201cin obtaining answers and acknowledging Belgium\u2019s responsibility for a heinous criminal enterprise.\u201d For Blandine Lumumba<\/strong>, one of the former prime minister\u2019s daughters, \u201cthis trial will be important for everyone: whatever their social class, race or gender, everyone will be able to follow it and learn something.\u201d Her nephew Mehdi echoed this sentiment, arguing that Davignon\u2019s trial will allow Belgium to \u201cfinally face up to its history<\/strong>.\u201d <\/p>\n

Following his diplomatic posting in the Congo in 1961, Davignon\u2019s career at European level began in 1970 when, as chairman of a committee tasked with drawing up proposals for the revitalisation of Community cooperation in the field of foreign policy, he presented the homonymous Report<\/a>, in which he called for the establishment of a system of regular information and consultation between the foreign ministers of the Member States and the holding of periodic meetings between them to discuss the main international issues. After serving as the first president of the International Energy Agency in 1975<\/strong>, <\/strong>and as a <\/strong>member of the Christian Democratic Party<\/span> Les Engag\u00e9s, he was appointed European Commissioner for the Internal Market, the Customs Union and Industrial Affairs<\/strong> within the Commission chaired by the British politician Roy Jenkins. In 1981, upon the appointment of the executive led by the Luxembourger Gaston Thorn, he was confirmed as European Commissioner for Belgium and took over the Energy portfolio<\/strong>. For the time being, the European Commission is reviewing the news of Davignon\u2019s indictment, but is not commenting on the matter, postponing any statement until a later date.<\/p>\n

His trial is not expected to begin until January 2027<\/strong> at the earliest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to the Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office, Davignon was aware that the first leader of independent Congo had been taken to the secessionist region of Katanga following his abduction in September 1960, but did nothing to prevent him from being killed four months later<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7899,"featured_media":447917,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25712],"tags":[25871,25801,33432,30472,33433,33434,33435,33436,33437],"class_list":["post-447963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-news","tag-belgian-cat-en","tag-colonialismo","tag-congo-en","tag-davignon","tag-katanga","tag-lumumba","tag-omicidio","tag-processo"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7899"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447963"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":447964,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447963\/revisions\/447964"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}