The Liège Court of Appeal has sentenced Julienne Mpemba, a 48-year-old Belgian woman of Congolese origin, to 14 years in prison and an €8,000 fine for charges including hostage-taking, kidnapping, human trafficking, fraud, and forgery. She has been ordered into immediate custody.
Mpemba was initially sentenced to 10 years in prison by a lower court. She facilitated the adoption of around a dozen purportedly orphaned children in Belgium, who had actually been taken from their biological families in Congo.
In 2015, Belgian adoptive families welcomed Congolese children aged between two and five years old. Mpemba reportedly extorted additional money from these families before handing over children she claimed were orphans.
She also offered children for adoption who had been abducted from remote areas near Kinshasa and placed in an orphanage managed by her.
During the appellate proceedings, Mpemba attempted to delay the trial through various legal tactics. She addressed the court on the accusations but later missed the sentencing, citing medical reasons. However, a court-appointed forensic doctor concluded that she was fit to appear.
