Military expert freed from DRC jail seeks protection after death threats in Belgium
Belgian-Congolese military expert Jean-Jacques Wondo, who was released from a Kinshasa prison this year after being sentenced to death, has asked for protection from Belgian and European authorities following “explicit and repeated death threats”.
According to Wondo’s entourage, the threats link him to a Congolese journalist who was attacked in Tienen at the end of last month.
The victim was a political refugee who has been critical of the regime in Kinshasa. The perpetrators fled following the intervention of mayor Jonathan Holslag and Elias Cool, local party leader for Vlaams Belang, who witnessed the attack.
Police report filed
The people sending messages to Wondo say that what happened to the journalist “is nothing compared to what awaits Wondo”, whose address in Belgium they claim to know.
A report has now been filed with the police. Wondo says the threats are part of a broader intimidation campaign that affects not only him but also family members in Kinshasa.
Critics of the regime are increasingly facing threats or aggression, he said, warning of “the danger posed by the export of such violent and barbaric practices to Belgium (and Europe)” and stressing the need to prevent Belgium from becoming a haven for such threats.
He urges the Belgian and European authorities to take “immediate, forceful and determined action to identify, prosecute and neutralise those responsible for these threats, who appear to be acting in the interests of [president] Félix Tshisekedi's regime or circles close to the Congolese authorities”.
A specialist in geopolitical and defence issues in Central Africa, Wondo was sentenced to death last September by a military court in Kinshasa. Alongside some 30 other defendants, he was alleged to have been involved in a failed coup.
He was arrested a few days after the coup in May, but his lawyers have always maintained there is no evidence of his involvement. He was freed in February after widespread campaigning to secure his release and returned to Belgium.
Jean-Jacques Wondo returns to Brussels after his release from prison in Kinshasa, where had been sentenced to death for his alleged role in a failed coup © BELGA PHOTO HATIM KAGHAT
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