LONDON: A French couple living in Britain who tortured and murdered their au pair and tried to dispose of the body in a back garden bonfire have been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 30 years.<br>The Old Bailey court in London sentenced Sabrina Kouider, who is undergoing psychiatric treatment, and Ouissem Medouni for the September 2017 killing of 21-year-old Sophie Lionnet, after a two-month trial ended on May 24 with their convictions.<br>“Sophie was a kind, gentle and good natured girl,” said Judge Nicholas Hilliard. “The suffering and the torture you put her through before her death was prolonged and without pity.”<br>He added: “I’m sure on all the evidence you were both involved.”<br>The jury deliberated for a week before unanimously convicting Kouider and ruling by a majority decision of 10 to 2 that her partner Medouni was also guilty.<br>Both had denied murdering Lionnet, from Troyes in eastern France, although they had admitted to burning her body.<br>The court heard how the couple had interrogated and tortured Lionnet over their belief she was conspiring with one of Kouider’s ex-boyfriends — Mark Walton, a former member of Irish band Boyzone — who they claimed sexually abused members of their family.<br>“She died as a result of purposeful and sustained violence, and not by accident,” state prosecutor Aisling Hosein said when they were convicted.<br>“They were both jointly involved and came up with a plan to try and destroy her body and escape responsibility for this horrendous crime.”<br>Kouider, who has two children, apologized to her victim in a letter read out in court Tuesday.<br>“I’m suffering every day thinking of you and what happened to you that dreadful night,” she said.<br>“I only wish I could turn the clock back, it never happened and you would be alive with us today.”<br>Icah Peart, Kouider’s lawyer, said his client was suffering from an “overwhelming and obsesssional fear” over Walton and “everything she did was absolutely driven by delusional disorder.”<br>Medouni’s lawyer Orlando Pownall insisted Kouider had been the “dominant” party and his client was “indoctrinated.”<br>The victim’s mother called the duo “monsters” in a statement read in court last month.<br>Catherine Devallonne said she “fell into shock and was hospitalized” after police broke the news that her daughter, whom she described as a “reserved young girl,” had been killed.<br>“I’ve been living this nightmare ever since,” she added. “Those monsters beat her to death. They left her hungry. They took away her dignity and eventually her life.”<br>Police described how Lionnet was subjected to a “series of ‘interrogations’... over a 12-day period, in a bid to force Sophie to admit various false crimes they had accused her of.”<br>Kouider, who admitted during the trial that she hit Lionnet “really bad” with an electrical cable, filmed some of the sessions. They had planned to hand them over to police as evidence of the au pair’s guilt.<br>“We will never know the full extent of the horrors Sophie had to endure,” said Scotland Yard detective Domenica Catino.<br>“Even in death, the torture, abuse and humiliation continued by placing her partially-clothed body into a suitcase with no regard for even a semblance of a burial.<br>“It was clear that together the couple made the decision to torture Sophie and then in a cowardly fashion blamed each other for her death,” added the detective.<br>Firefighters discovered Medouni trying to burn Lionnet’s body on September 20 at the couple’s home in Southfields, south-west London.<br>Neighbours alerted the authorities after noticing smoke and a “horrible” smell coming from the property.<br>Firefighter Thomas Hunt told the court that he confronted Medouni after he found human fingers and a nose as he put out the fire.
Families mourn those killed in a Congo mine landslide as some survivors prepare to return
GOMA, Congo: After a landslide last week killed at least 200 people in eastern Congo at a rebel-controlled coltan mine, families of the deceased and survivors are mourning their lost loved ones, and some survivors prepared to head back to the reopened mines.
On Wednesday, following heavy rains in eastern Congo, a network of hand-dug tunnels at the Rubaya mining complex collapsed, killing at least 200 artisanal miners and trapping an unknown number who remain missing. The mine, located around 25 miles (40 kilometers) to the west of the regional capital of Goma, has been under the control of Rwandan-backed M23 rebels since early 2024 and employs thousands of miners who work largely by hand.
Family members grieve
In the Mugunga neighborhood in Goma, the family of Bosco Nguvumali Kalabosh, 39, mourned his death Monday.
Since last Thursday, relatives, neighbors and loved ones have been gathering at the family home, sitting around a photograph of him placed up against a wall.
“He was supposed to return to Goma on Thursday,” said his older brother, Thimothée Kalabosh Nzanga.
Kalabosh had been a miner for more than 10 years. He owned his own mines on the site and came from a family where artisanal mining — mining for minerals using basic hand tools — had been passed down from generation to generation. He leaves behind a widow and four children, the eldest of whom is 5 years old.
Survivors head back to Rubaya
For survivors trickling back into town, the pressure to return to the mines is clear — despite the constant danger.
Tumaini Munguiko, a survivor of the collapse, came to offer his condolences to Kalabosh’s family. “Seeing our peers die is very painful. But despite the pain, we are forced to return to the mines to survive,” he said.
Munguiko calmly explained that he had already experienced several similar disasters. “It has almost become normal. We accept it because it is our means of survival. I was saved this time, but I lost five friends and my older brother.”
According to him, landslides are common in Rubaya, especially during the rainy season. “When it rains, the clay soils become unstable. Some take shelter, others perish, others survive, and others watch from afar,” he said.
Miners dig long tunnels, often parallel to one another, with limited support and no safe evacuation route in case of a collapse.
A former miner at the site told The Associated Press that there have been repeated landslides because the tunnels are dug by hand, poorly constructed and not maintained.
“People dig everywhere, without control or safety measures. In a single pit, there can be as many as 500 miners, and because the tunnels run parallel, one collapse can affect many pits at once,” former miner Clovis Mafare said.
“The diggers don’t have insurance,” said Mafare. Of potential compensation for families, he said: “It’s a whole legal process, and it’s very long. They might receive some money for the funerals, but that small amount isn’t compensation.”
Kalabosh’s family has not received compensation for their loss.
However, both Munguiko and Nzanga say they will return to the mines soon despite the risks.
“I have no choice. Our whole life is there,” said Munguiko.
Rare earth minerals
The Rubaya mines have been at the center of the recent fighting in eastern Congo, changing hands between the Congolese government and rebel groups. For over a year now, the site has been controlled by the M23 rebels.
The mines produce coltan — short for columbite-tantalite — an ore from which the metals tantalum and niobium are extracted. Both are considered critical raw materials by the United States, the European Union, China and Japan. Tantalum is used in mobile phones, computers and automotive electronics, as well as in aircraft engines, missile components and GPS systems. Niobium is used in pipelines, rockets and jet engines.
The mines at Rubaya are massive and attract people from across the region. Artisanal miners and workers have been flocking there for years, drawn to the site to earn a steady income in a region plagued by poverty and chronic insecurity. A disaster like this affects people across eastern Congo and the grief has spread to regional hubs like Goma.
For the last two weeks, Rubaya has been virtually cut off from the world. The mining town has no mobile network or Internet connection. Poor infrastructure, coupled with persistent conflict, means cellular service and electricity are unreliable. To communicate with the outside world, residents must pay around 5,000 Congolese francs — just over $2 — for 30 minutes of connection via a private Starlink system.
Congo’s government, in a statement on X, expressed solidarity with the victims’ families and accused the rebels of illegally and unsafely exploiting the region’s natural resources while blaming Rwanda. An M23 spokesperson accused the government of politicizing the tragedy and listed other collapses at government-controlled mines.
