ISTANBUL

Former Congolese rebel leader Roger Lumbala went on trial Wednesday in Paris, accused of crimes against humanity committed during the Second Congo War.

The proceedings, expected to last more than a month, will include testimony from victims who have traveled to Paris. It will mark the first time a citizen of the Democratic Republic of Congo is prosecuted in France under the principle of universal jurisdiction.

Lumbala, 67, was arrested Dec. 29, 2020, in Paris by the Central Office for the Fight against Crimes against Humanity (OCLCH) and indicted Jan. 2, 2021, for “criminal conspiracy with a view to preparing crimes against humanity” and “complicity in crimes against humanity.”

He was indicted in November 2023 under the principle of universal jurisdiction, a legal mechanism that allows a state to prosecute serious crimes regardless of where they were committed or the nationality of the victims. He faces life imprisonment.

Lumbala is accused of acts during the Effacer le tableau (Erase the Board) military operation between October 2002 and January 2003 by the Uganda-backed Rally of Congolese Democrats and Nationalists (RCD-N), an armed group and political party he led that wanted to seize the Beni region, a strategic, mineral-rich area in the eastern province of Ituri.

According to a UN report released in February 2003, the offensive was marked by “systematic killings, rapes and looting” considered to be crimes against humanity.

Between 1998 and 2003, the Second Congo War pitted the government of Laurent Kabila against the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) and regional powers including Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi.

Lumbala, a former Uganda ally, created the RCD-N to fight Kabila’s government, reportedly imposing a regime that included massacres of civilians, exploitation of gold and diamond deposits and elephant poaching, according to Congolese and foreign witnesses.

Lumbala entered Congolese politics at the end of the war, briefly serving as a foreign trade minister before being suspended in 2004 for corruption and embezzlement. He later took up arms with the March 23 Movement (M23), an armed group allegedly backed by Rwanda, which Kigali denies.

In 2012, after an attempted arrest in Burundi, he took refuge in the South African Embassy, then left the country for France.

Settled in Paris, he sought refugee status again, which was refused by the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (Ofpra) for his alleged involvement in war crimes.

A 2016 Ofpra report under Article 40 of the French criminal code prompted an investigation by the Paris prosecutor’s office, handled by the OCLCH.