Brazilians sentenced in beating death of Congolese migrant

Congolese refugee Moise Kabagambe was beaten to death at the Barra da Tijuca beach in Rio de Janeiro in 2022 after
asking his employers for overdue wages for two days of work – Copyright AFP MUNIR UZ ZAMAN

Two Brazilians have been sentenced to 19 and 23 years in prison respectively for the beating death of a young Congolese migrant in Rio de Janeiro, the court announced Saturday.

Aleson Cristiano de Oliveira Fonseca was sentenced to 23 years and seven months, and Fabio Pirineus da Silva to 19 years and six months for the killing on January 24, 2022 of Moise Kabagambe, a court statement said.

The 24-year-old Kabagambe was killed near the kiosk where he worked along the Barra da Tijuca beach.

Testimony from his family, buttressed by surveillance video, showed the two men savagely beating Kabagambe when he asked them for his overdue wages for two days of work.

The attackers struck him with their fists, their feet and a stick after a third man, Brendon Alexander Luz da Silva — who will face trial later — had bound his hands and feet, the court statement said.

“We got the response we had been waiting for for three years,” Maurice Kabagambe, the dead man’s brother, told the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo. 

“All of Brazil saw what they did to Moise. They killed him like cowards.”

The crime shocked Brazilians as images from the surveillance video were shown repeatedly on television. Demonstrations were organized to demand justice.

Moise Kabagambe and members of his family had arrived in Brazil in 2011 after fleeing armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.