Pierre Mulele was a Congolese

Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...

 revolutionary

Revolutionary

A revolutionary is a person who either actively participates in, or advocates revolution. Also, when used as an adjective, the term revolutionary refers to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavor.-Definition:...

 who was briefly minister of education in Patrice Lumumba

Patrice Lumumba

Patrice Émery Lumumba was a Congolese independence leader and the first legally elected Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo after he helped win its independence from Belgium in June 1960. Only ten weeks later, Lumumba's government was deposed in a coup during the Congo Crisis...

's cabinet. He was member of the Bapende

Bapende

The Pende are an ethnic group found in the south-western Democratic Republic of the Congo, and especially in the Kwilu District. Their population is estimated to be around 250.000....

 ethnic group. In 1964, during the Simba rebellions, Mulele, who had previously undergone training in the Eastern bloc

Eastern bloc

The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...

 as well as Red China

People's Republic of China

China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

, led a Maoist

Maoism

Maoism, also known as the Mao Zedong Thought , is claimed by Maoists as an anti-Revisionist form of Marxist communist theory, derived from the teachings of the Chinese political leader Mao Zedong . Developed during the 1950s and 1960s, it was widely applied as the political and military guiding...

 faction in the Kwilu District

Kwilu District

Kwilu District is a district located in the Bandundu province, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo....

. After the rebellion's defeat, he fled into exile in Congo-Brazzaville

Republic of the Congo

The Republic of the Congo , sometimes known locally as Congo-Brazzaville, is a state in Central Africa. It is bordered by Gabon, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo , the Angolan exclave province of Cabinda, and the Gulf of Guinea.The region was dominated by...

. In 1968, then-President

Heads of state of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

This is the list of the Heads of State of the Democratic Republic of the Congo since independence in 1960. The current head of state is President Joseph Kabila, since 26 January 2001.-Heads of State:-Affiliations:...

 Joseph-Désiré Mobutu (later Mobutu Sese Seko

Mobutu Sese Seko

Mobutu Sese Seko Nkuku Ngbendu wa Za Banga , commonly known as Mobutu or Mobutu Sese Seko , born Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, was the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1965 to 1997...

) lured Mulele out of exile by promising him amnesty. Mulele returned to Congo-Kinshasa

Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville)

The Republic of the Congo was an independent republic established following the independence granted to the former colony of the Belgian Congo in 1960...

, believing he would be granted amnesty. Instead, he was publicly tortured and executed: his eyes were pulled from their sockets, his genitals were ripped off, and his limbs were amputated one by one, all while he was alive. What was left was dumped in the river

Congo River

The Congo River is a river in Africa, and is the deepest river in the world, with measured depths in excess of . It is the second largest river in the world by volume of water discharged, though it has only one-fifth the volume of the world's largest river, the Amazon...

.