Belgium’s prosecutors announced Tuesday that they want to try a 92-year-old former diplomat in connection with the 1961 assassination of Congolese independence leader Patrice Lumumba.
Etienne Davignon, the sole surviving suspect among ten Belgians named in a 2011 lawsuit filed by Lumumba’s children, could become the first Belgian official to take legal action over the murder that has haunted Belgium’s colonial legacy for more than six decades.
Lumumba, a fierce critic of colonialism and the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo after it gained independence in 1960, was overthrown in a coup and executed on January 17, 1961, at the age of 35. His death occurred in the mineral-rich Katanga region with the support of Belgian mercenaries. His body was later dissolved in acid, leaving no remains; Only one tooth remains, which Belgium returned to its family in 2022 as part of a national reckoning.
Davignon was a young diplomat when Lumumba died. He later rose to become vice president of the European Commission in the 1980s. He is now charged with Lumumba’s “illegal detention and transfer” and “humiliating and degrading treatment”. But prosecutors said charges of intent to kill should be dropped.
A hearing is scheduled for January 2026 to determine whether the case will go to trial.
“This is a step in the right direction. What we are looking for, above all, is the truth,” Juliana Lumumba, the late leader’s daughter, told Belgian broadcaster RTBF.
The move is the latest in Belgium’s long-standing efforts to confront its colonial past. A 2001 parliamentary inquiry acknowledged Belgium’s “moral responsibility” for Lumumba’s killing, and a year later the government issued a formal apology.