These sentences have elicited mixed reactions with some particularly the human rights groups welcoming the sentences while others in particular, the defense counsel criticising the convictions as miscarriage of justice meant to appease the public.
Lawyers for the accused and the civil party lawyers want the case back to the High Military Court, to exclusively charge General Numbi, the police chief with whom Chebeya had an appointment the night of his assassination but was not prosecuted.
According to François Cantier, President of Lawyers Without Borders (France) and a member of the group of lawyers, there are several flaws in this trial including insufficient investigations.
He stated that,
"First, the investigations conducted by the military justice system (which is institutionally very dependent on the power), is clearly inadequate. Case in point: we found at the entrance of the police station where Floribert Chebeya was summoned, and he was probably murdered, there was a camera. And there is a room where the videos are broadcast recorded by the camera. Knowing that the police say Floribert Chebeya never showed up on their premises, there was a simple way to check this by playing the tapes, but it has disappeared. This is an example and there are many others where the investigation was clearly insufficient
Second, the trial took place before a military court that does not have all the necessary guarantees of independence I am sure that pressure was exerted on the judges.’
Third, the prime suspect the police chief, General John Numbi, was not been indicted while precise and consistent indications suggest (as of course benefit from the presumption of innocence) that he is directly involved, not least because he signed the letter of invitation Floribert Chebeya, which convened Floribert visited, after which he died’.
Mrs Annie Chebeya, the widow has also vowed to continue fighting until justice is seen to be done in the case of the chief police officer General John Numbi.
It is reported that tension remains high and there have been repeated threats to the plaintiff’s lawyers, human rights activists and family members of the deceased.
The new executive director of the NGO "Voice of the voiceless" and successor to Floribert Chebeya, Ibefo Mbunga, stated that ‘We no longer believe in this trial. (...) We reserve the right to appeal…’.