By Joe Bavier

GOMA, Congo, Aug 29 (Reuters) - An international press watchdog accused Congolese authorities on Wednesday of avoiding a politically-sensitive investigation by hastily condemning four people to death for killing a U.N. journalist.

A military court in Democratic Republic of Congo convicted two demobilised soldiers on Tuesday after they confessed to gunning down U.N. radio reporter Serge Maheshe on June 13 as he left a friend's home in the eastern city of Bukavu.

Serge Muhima and Alain Mulimbi, two of Maheshe's close friends who were with him at the time of his murder, were found guilty of organising the hit. Six others were acquitted.

"The judge admitted during the trial that there were people involved behind the scenes in the killing. How can he convict four people without carrying out a full investigation?" Leonard Vincent, head of Reporters without Borders' (RSF) Africa section, said by telephone from Paris. "It is stupefying."

"They have condemned two innocent men to death," said Vincent, adding that material evidence presented at the trial did not support the charges against Muhima and Mulimbi.

The case against them rested largely on the testimony of the two former soldiers and no motive was ever established at the trial.

Maheshe was editor-in-chief in Bukavu for Radio Okapi, a U.N.-backed station set up to bolster the peace process following Congo's 1998-2003 war. Shortly before his killing, he alerted U.N. officials that members of President Joseph Kabila's powerful presidential guard had threatened him.

U.N. officials have said Maheshe was not robbed and the assailants, who asked his name before shooting him in the legs and chest, left others with him unharmed.

"The reluctance to carry the trial through to a real conclusion creates a legitimate suspicion that there is a will to conceal the truth," said Vincent.

The trial opened a day after Maheshe's killing, sparking criticism from human rights campaigners that it was being rushed through. Congo's Justice Minister Georges Minsay Booka told Reuters he had no plans to intervene in the case.

"I'm not a judge. The decision was pronounced. The innocent were freed. The guilty were convicted," he said.

Lawyers for Muhima and Mulimbi said they were planning to appeal the decision.

"The decision is founded on absolutely no legal element," said Wilson Lutwamuzire, whose firm is handling the case.

Threats and intimidation against journalists are common in Congo, which last year held its first free elections in more than four decades. At least four journalists have been killed since 2005 in Congo, which RSF classifies as a "difficult situation" country.

Patrick Kikuku, a freelance photojournalist and reporter, was slain this month in Goma, the capital of the troubled North Kivu province, also by armed men in uniform.

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