Marcel Antoine Lihau or Ebua Libana la Molengo Lihau was a Congolese jurist, law professor and politician who served as the inaugural First President of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Congo from 1968 until 1975, and was involved in the creation of two constitutions for the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
48 Facts About Marcel Lihau
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Marcel Lihau served briefly as a justice official and negotiator for the Congolese central government before being appointed to lead a commission to draft a permanent national constitution.
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Marcel Lihau was made dean of law faculty at Lovanium University in 1963.
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In 1965, Joseph-Desire Mobutu seized total control of the country and directed Marcel Lihau to produce a new constitution.
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Three years later Marcel Lihau was appointed First President of the new Supreme Court of Justice of the Congo.
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Marcel Lihau retained the position, advocating for judicial independence, until 1975, when he refused to force a harsh sentence upon student protesters.
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Marcel Lihau was summarily removed from his post by Mobutu and placed under house arrest.
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Marcel Lihau continued to advocate for democracy in the Congo and returned to the country in 1990, to discuss political reform.
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Marcel Lihau went back to the United States to seek medical treatment and died there in 1999.
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Marcel Lihau was born on 29 September 1931 in Bumba, Equateur Province, Belgian Congo, the eldest of eight children.
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Marcel Lihau passed the test with a high score and was admitted to the university.
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Since it was his goal to study law, De Craemer and several sympathetic Jesuit educators arranged for Marcel Lihau to take the necessary classes under the cover of studying Roman philology.
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Marcel Lihau served as president of the small Congolese-Ruanda-Urundi students' union in Belgium, Association Generale des Etudiants Congolais en Belgique.
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In 1962, after spending time in the Congo, Marcel Lihau returned to Louvain to complete his studies.
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That year restrictions on Congolese education were loosened and Marcel Lihau became a Doctor of Philosophy law student.
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Marcel Lihau attended the political portion of the conference as an observer on behalf of the AGEC.
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Marcel Lihau traveled to Katanga in November 1960 to negotiate with the rebellious province's leaders.
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Marcel Lihau assisted in organising and subsequently took part in the Leopoldville Conference in January 1961 to discuss political compromise and reform.
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Marcel Lihau played a key role in the drafting process from that point forward.
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In January 1963, Marcel Lihau was hired to be professor and dean of the faculty of law at Lovanium University.
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Marcel Lihau encouraged his students to adopt a constitutionalist approach to law.
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The commission convened on 10 January 1964 in Luluabourg, with Marcel Lihau serving as its secretary.
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Marcel Lihau requested that Lihau draft a new constitution, which was adopted on 24 June 1967.
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On 14 August 1968, Marcel Lihau was named First President of the new Supreme Court of Justice of the Congo.
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Marcel Lihau soon adopted the name Ebua Libana la Molengo Lihau, as per the encouraged Africanisation in accordance with Mobutu's policy of Authenticite.
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In 1971, Marcel Lihau was inducted into the executive committee of the state-sanctioned party, Mouvement Populaire de la Revolution.
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Marcel Lihau supported the independence of the judiciary and, despite Mobutu's centralisation, interpreted the document as only veiling such autonomy, not eliminating it.
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Marcel Lihau explained that the constitution's references to the "Judicial Council" in place of the previous term "Judicial Power" were, though obfuscating, done only for political reasons and signified no real change.
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In June 1975, Marcel Lihau refused to enforce a harsh sentence levied against student protesters.
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Marcel Lihau was dismissed from the Supreme Court, removed from his teaching position, and placed under house arrest.
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Two years later he joined them in founding the Union pour la Democratie et le Progres Social as an opposition party to Mobutu; Marcel Lihau soon became the new party's president.
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David Heaps, chairman of the board of Human Rights Internet, convinced Mobutu to let Marcel Lihau leave the country.
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Marcel Lihau was granted political asylum in the United States, and moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to become a professor of constitutional law at Harvard.
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In early 1988, a dozen party executives traveled to Boston and convinced Marcel Lihau to assume the presidency of the UDPS.
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Marcel Lihau, who was at the time presiding over a meeting of exiled politicians in Brussels, demanded that before opposition elements returned to the country Mobutu's government guarantee the tolerance of a genuine multi-party system, agree to organise a round table conference for political reconciliation, and begin disbanding state security forces.
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Marcel Lihau returned to the Congo and became one of four directors of the UDPS under a reformed leadership model.
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Marcel Lihau joined the UDPS in endorsing the formation of a "Conference Nationale Souveraine" to discuss political reform in the country.
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One soon convened, but Marcel Lihau protested the large number of delegates summoned by Mobutu to participate, accusing him of trying to stack the representation in his own favor.
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Marcel Lihau went back to the United States to receive medical treatment.
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In June 1993, Marcel Lihau delivered a speech on television and radio, denouncing the Kasaian ethnic dominance of the UDPS and Tshisekedi's leadership.
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Marcel Lihau married future politician Sophie Kanza on 26 December 1964.
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The couple separated in the late 1970s, and Marcel Lihau saw little of his family during his years in the United States.
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Marcel Lihau's daughters denounced the action as a ploy by Kalokola to further his own political career.
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The Marcel Lihau family issued a statement requesting Mangbengu not to involve himself in a private family matter.
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Marcel Lihau died on 9 April 1999, in Boston, seven days after the death of his wife in Kinshasa.
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In 2001, Kalokola, ostensibly on behalf of the Marcel Lihau family, filed a complaint against unknown persons with the Attorney General of Kinshasa, claiming that Marcel Lihau had been murdered.
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Marcel Lihau based his assertion on a strange visit that Lihau supposedly had with someone the day after the death of his wife and on unusual signs that were observed on Lihau's body when it was brought to Kinshasa.
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John Dickie and Alan Rake described Marcel Lihau as "reserved and rather uncommunicative" but in possession of an "excellent legal mind".