Lawsuit over Brazzaville deaths in detention

The families of six youths found dead in police custody in Congo-Brazzaville in 2021 are suing the state for damages, a rights group supporting them has confirmed. Officials said the six, whose bodies were found in a police jail in the capital Brazzaville in November, had probably died as a result of overcrowding, but family members and rights groups have disputed this account. ‘We and the families are filing a civil lawsuit to find out who was responsible and obtain compensation,’ Tresor Nzila, an activist with the Centre for Development Action, told AFP. A forensic expert who carried out autopsies on four of the six corpses ruled that the victims had died of assault and battery. The civil action was lodged in a Brazzaville court by relatives of four of the six victims.