Tuesday, September 23, 2008

More On The Evil That Was Rained Down On Lumumba

Posted by Peter Quennell



The Tom Kington Interview

Tom Kington of the UK Observer interviews Patrick Lumumba.

Diya Lumumba, 39, was at last week’s first pre-trial hearing in Perugia at which Knox, 21, appeared in public for the first time since her arrest last year. ‘Why did she accuse me?’ he asked. ‘The black is always the killer in films, and I am convinced that is why she named me as her way of derailing the investigation.’

It was November last year when Knox, by then in custody, implicated Lumumba in the killing, telling police he entered Miss Kercher’s bedroom in their shared house on the night of 1 November, while she covered her ears in the kitchen… Police raided Lumumba’s home and arrested him in front of his Polish wife Aleksandra and baby son Davide, saying only: ‘You know what you did.’ Investigators leaked an allegation that Lumumba had entered the isolated house outside Perugia’s medieval walls to ‘possess’ Miss Kercher…

He said of his accuser last week: ‘She is a lion disguised as a lamb.’ Knox, who worked at Lumumba’s Le Chic bar, later changed her account, claiming that she had spent the evening at Sollecito’s house. Lumumba remains sceptical that she was, as she claimed, in a daze when she named him to police.

Investigators had found a text message from Lumumba to Knox, ending ‘See you later’, which they believed meant an appointment had been fixed for the night of the murder at Miss Kercher’s house. Despite Knox retracting her statement, Lumumba was only freed thanks to a Swiss academic who had talked politics with him at Le Chic that night - the sole customer.

Back in Zurich, the man heard by chance about Lumumba’s arrest and contacted police with an alibi. ‘That is one person in all this that I would really like to see again,’ said Lumumba. He is now a free man and is seeking damages. But he is also facing up to a bleak future.

Le Chic, once popular with local residents and students, was sealed by police for three months. By last month, with empty bar stools and losses rising, Lumumba closed the shutters for good. ‘I am staying in Perugia, but I have to decide on my future now. I just want a normal life, but it will take time for scars to heal,’ he said.

‘Everything changed for Lumumba here and he will never own a bar again in this town,’ said Estebán Garcà­a Pascual, a friend who owns another Perugia bar. The man who once acted as a bridge between the town, its student community and newly arrived immigrants is now viewed with suspicion, Pascual believes. ‘He is seen as the guy from the TV and in this town people love to talk.’

The experience has also changed him. The dreadlocked musician with a broad smile who was handing out flyers for a candlelit vigil for Miss Kercher just before he was arrested is still courteous and warm but, according to friends, far more cautious and reserved.

For Lumumba, two weeks in a cell was enough to end his affair with the city that welcomed him when he arrived from Congo in his twenties and began to organise reggae bands. Now the music he has played all his life is the only thing he has to fall back on. ‘As a Catholic growing up in the Congo, I started singing in church as a child, then learnt the piano at 14, which I have taken up again with a professor at the conservatory here in Perugia,’ he said…

What really rankles is that [Knox] has yet to apologise to him. Carlo Pacelli, Lumumba’s lawyer, was in court. ‘They did not exchange a single look during the entire hearing,’ he said.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 09/23/08 at 05:29 PM in Defendants in court,  Amanda Knox,  The officially involved,  Evidence & Witnesses,  Pat Lumumba,  News media & movies,  Excellent reporting

Comments

The poor guy, his life was turned upside down and inside out.  fate dealt him a dreadful hand. What has become of him does anyone know ?
AK,RS,RG are truly despicable, deranged beings… they have ruined many lives. and affected many many more including my own. I am left deeply saddened by the whole sorry affair. Its not very often that events transpire that capture the whole world. This murder is one of those events.
Its been more than two years now since Mez was taken from our world. i still lie in bed at night with a desolate feeling in the pit of my stomach.
Shame on all three of them, shame on the people who fight for their release.. I hope the sun never shines on any of their faces..

Posted by derian on 02/06/10 at 12:26 PM | #
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