Catalán's sister, Elizabeth Morseby, tells SVT that the news is overwhelming, and that the family feels both relief and sadness.
"It feels like a huge step toward justice has been taken. But there is also sadness that nothing can give us Zaida back," says Morseby.
The colonel was the highest-ranking military officer in the area. In 2018, the TV channel reported that he had conspired to assassinate Zaida Catalán and American Michael Sharp.
Logs from the colonel's phone have shown that, during the days surrounding the murder, he was in contact with several people who have been identified as involved in the murders, SVT reports.
Zaida Catalán, Michael Sharp and local aide Betu Shintela were abducted and murdered while on a mission in the province of Kasaï Central. About a week later, the three murder victims were found buried in the area.
Catalán worked as an expert for a UN committee directly under the UN Security Council with the task of, among other things, monitoring sanctions against the country and investigating suspected massacres in the Kasaï region, where there had been an armed conflict between Kamuina Nsapu and government forces.
The conflict that was then ongoing in the region claimed thousands of lives and many people were forced to flee their homes.
