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BRAZZAVILLE — A court in the Republic of Congo convicted and sentenced six people for contributing to an arms depot fire, which set off a deadly string of explosions in 2012, killing close to 300 people, according to the president of the tribunal.A total of 26 others were acquitted for involvement in the blasts, which began after a military warehouse caught fire under suspicious circumstances on 4 March 2012, said Mathurin Bayi, president of the criminal court after the verdict was read late Monday.
The war-grade weapons that were inside exploded in quick succession, pulverizing hundreds of houses nearby. Aerial photographs showed that the explosions leveled a one square-mile area.
The heaviest sentence went to an army corporal, who received 15 years of forced labor for arson. A colonel was sentenced to five years for embezzling funds which were supposed to be used to build proper containers for the munitions. — AP.
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