Belgian prosecutors have announced plans to bring charges against 92-year-old former diplomat Etienne Davignon over his alleged role in the 1961 assassination of Congolese independence leader Patrice Lumumba.
Davignon, then a trainee diplomat, is accused of participating in the “unlawful detention and transfer” of Lumumba, and subjecting him to “humiliating and degrading treatment” prior to his execution. He is the only surviving suspect among ten Belgians implicated in the killing, which has long haunted Belgium’s colonial legacy. Lumumba, Congo’s first Prime Minister, became a symbol of African liberation after leading his country to independence from Belgium in 1960. His fierce anti-colonial rhetoric and appeal for Soviet aid during Congo’s post-independence crisis made him a target for Western powers.
After being deposed in a Western-backed coup, Lumumba was arrested, brutally mistreated, and executed by firing squad in the secessionist Katanga province on 17 January 1961. A Belgian parliamentary inquiry in 2001 admitted Belgium bore “moral responsibility,” and the government apologized the following year. In 2022, Belgian authorities returned Lumumba’s only recovered remains — a gold-crowned tooth — to his family. The upcoming hearing in January 2026 will determine whether Davignon stands trial. Juliana Lumumba, the late leader’s daughter, welcomed the move: “We’re moving in the right direction. What we’re seeking is, first and foremost, the truth.”