Murder Suspects of Italian Envoy Luca Attanasio on Trial in DR Congo

The Italian ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo was one of three victims to be killed on 22 February 2021, when a UN convoy was ambushed in the unrest-ridden eastern province of North Kivu.

Hearings began on Wednesday in DR Congo's capital Kinshasa in the case of suspects in the 2021 assassination of Italian Ambassador Luca Attanasio.

The trial officially started on 12 October, but it was put on hold at the request of the defense attorneys, who claimed they had not examined the case file.

Last week, during a second hearing before a military court in Kinshasa, five prisoners accused of taking part in the murder asked for bail. One of the attorneys for the Congolese defendants reportedly requested that his clients be released from prison on bail because "they are purely and simply innocent".

The defense lawyer reportedly argued that because the defendants are civilians, the military court did not have the authority to prosecute them. But the prosecutor countered that a military court was necessary because the suspected attackers used "weapons and munitions of war", and the "gravity" of their crime would made the release appalling.

The case, however, involves a sixth criminal, allegedly known by the alias Aspirant, who was not captured by the African country's authorities and remains on the run.

The alleged perpetrators of the 2021 attack were detained by Congolese authorities in January, who described the ambush as an attempted kidnapping for ransom gone wrong.

Murder of Luca Attanasio

The 43-year-old ambassador was fatally shot during an ambush which took place when an unescorted UN World Food Programme (WFP) convoy on a field trip was attacked by an armed group. The convoy was heading from the city Goma to Rutshuru, where the ambassador would visit a WFP project that provided meals to pupils at a school.

As well as Attanasio, the WFP driver Mustapha Milambo and the ambassador's bodyguard, paramilitary officer Vittorio Iacovacci, 30, were killed. Other members of the convoy suffered injuries as a result of the attack.

Attanasio and Iacovacci's bodies were returned to Italy by military aircraft in late February 2021, and Mario Draghi, the prime minister at the time, met them in a brief ceremony on the tarmac.

Italy has formally requested an investigation into what transpired amid concerns that the UN security measures were not adequate for the mission. According to the UN, the route has been made safe for use without the need for armored vehicles or security escorts.

There are three investigations in total underway into the deadly incident. One is led by the UN Security Department, one by the Italian authorities, and one by the DR Congo authorities. In July, the African nation was visited by the Italian investigators, who reportedly questioned the five suspects.

Armed gangs, many of which are left over from local wars that broke out in the late Nineties and early Noughties, prey on much of eastern DRC. In this unstable area, militia attacks on civilians are common.