DRC: Félix Tshisekedi appoints new magistrates

Text by: RFI Follow

The president Félix Tshisekedi proceeded this Friday to the members of the office of the Superior council of the magistrature. They are among the most important magistrates in the country.

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Since September 2019, the old compositions had relied on the discretion of the new Head of State. The decision was therefore awaited.

Flory Kabange Numbi leaves. He who was regularly accused by civil society of being under the thumb of former President Joseph Kabila. The new attorney general at the Court of Cassation was previously advocate general. Victor Mumba Mukomo is an old truck driver. He will have as a challenge the processing, in particular, of new files in connection with the suspicions of corruption and embezzlement of $ 15 million or the $ 180 million that civil society imputes to the new regime.

Jean-Paul Mukolo is appointed general prosecutor to the Constitutional Court, a court considered by the study group on the Congo as largely acquired by Joseph Kabila.

He is deemed competent and honest. He was for a long time general advocate at the level of the General Prosecutor's Office of the Republic. For his part, Dominique Thambwe, he was appointed first president of the Court of Cassation to replace Jérôme Kitoko.

We also know the new attorney general at the Council of State. His name is Octave Tela. He comes to take the place of Joseph Mushagalusa, whose departure was demanded by civil society, which accused him in particular of obstructing certain decisions of the Council of State. These new appointments are long overdue, there was talk of blockages between Félix Tshisekedi and his predecessor.

On the military justice side, General Joseph Mutombo Katalay, is the first president of the Military High Court. For his part, Lieutenant-General Mukuntu was reappointed as auditor general at the Military High Court.

Civil society organizations notably welcomed the departure of certain senior magistrates accused of being under the thumb of former President Joseph Kabila and of obstructing justice. This is particularly the case of Flory Kabange Numbi, ex-attorney general near the Court of Cassation, who leaves. For the Lucha organization, these appointments are a first step towards change.

But the organization is waiting to see, explains one of these activists, Jacques Issongo, because some of these magistrates were already in place under the old regime.

It is normal that we have doubts because we do not know if really they will stand out.

Jacques Issongo

■ The files

First file on the magistrates' table: the 15 million dollars affair. It had been mentioned at the very beginning of President Félix Tshisekedi's mandate. The Case concerns the surplus of money used to finance the importation of petroleum products. Surplus which would have been the subject of a diversion.

The second is the alleged embezzlement of $ 128 million from Gecamines. And quite recently, another alleged embezzlement of funds, this time intended for the program of the 100 days of the President of the Republic.

In addition to these alleged financial embezzlement cases, there are cases of human rights violations. The assassination in 2017 of two United Nations experts in Kasai is one of them. The trial continues laboriously while on the ground, populations have been massacred.

Also on the stack: the Floribert Chebeya case which awaits clarification. In June 2010, two Voices of the Voiceless human rights activists, Floribert Chebeya and Fidèle Bazana, were murdered in Kinshasa at the facilities of the national police. In January 2015, a fleeting witness - Colonel Paul Mwilambue - surrendered to the Senegalese courts . He has since asked to be extradited in order to clarify certain gray areas.

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