Rape of minors in DRC a former French of MONUC sentenced to 9 years imprisonment
A former official french of the United Nations, accused two dozen rapes of minors when he was stationed in Africa, was convicted Thursday by the Assize Court of Paris, and sentenced to nine years' imprisonment.
Didier Bourguet, 44 years, saw his sentence with an obligation to care for eight years after liberation, the president of the court stating that in case of non-compliance with this "socio-judicial monitoring," it would conduct three years prison.
Mr. Bourguet has already made nearly four years of detention, isolation, and this conviction makes it theoretically released in mid-2009, when he made half of his sentence.
A sentence "on the order of 12 years' rigorous imprisonment, coupled also forced to care, had been claimed by Attorney General Peter Kramer, who had swept the statements of the accused that no coercion was never been performed on young minor.
"The result is totally forced the age of people and economic context," said Kramer, presuming that most victims were young, they were more likely to be impressed by money in these poor countries.
Mr. Bourguet was receiving a monthly salary of 2,600 dollars in the DRC, where "an official win, when he worked 20 to 30 dollars", said Mr. Kramer. The discussions have shown that the accused paid for each service sexual "10 to 20 dollars".
Accused of 23 rapes or sexual assaults on teenage girls aged 12 to 18 years in the Central African Republic (1998-2000) and the DRC (2000-2004), he was finally convicted of two rapes, two of those three young Congolese identified and interviewed during the investigation.
On the third, only a civil party, who came to witness the first day of trial Tuesday, rape has been reclassified to sexual assault.
Didier Bourguet was also convicted of related crimes for which he was held: the corruption of minors and possession of pornographic images putting them on stage.
It is the seizure of these shots in a hard disk, speaking after his confession before the brigade moved on protection of minors in Paris in late 2004, which had led to confusion.
Arrested in Goma, DRC, the end of October 2004, he was quickly handed over to French authorities, under his "immunity" UN.
In defence of the accused, Me Deboosere-Lepidi stressed the large number of unidentified victims despite the photos, and regretted that there had been no "less confrontational" during the investigation, according to prevent him any measure of the degree of resistance "among adolescents.
According Me-Claude Deboosere Lepidi his lawyer, he was pleased that his client had been "acquitted (of) sixteen" of 18 rape charges.
As far as civil parties, the trial was described as "emblematic". Me Emmanuel Daoud noted that "166 investigations had been opened into suspicions of sexual assaults committed by employees of the mission of peacekeeping United Nations in the DRC (MONUC), leading to" 77 facts ".