DRC: Oly Ilunga's cassation appeal dismissed

Oly Ilunga, then Minister of Health of the DRC, at a press conference following a United Nations meeting on the Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, held in Geneva, July 15, 2019. FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP

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Sentenced to five years of forced labor for embezzling $ 400,000, the former Minister of Health Oly Ilunga saw his request for cassation dismissed.

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After the rejection of the request for cassation of the ex-Congolese Minister of Health, Oly Ilunga, his lawyers affirm that he was the victim of a denial of justice. Doctor Oly Ilunga was sentenced in the first and last resort to five years of forced labor for having embezzled $ 400,000. He has always rejected these accusations.

After accepting the cassation appeal, the court clerk declared that he had received this request in error. This situation scandalizes Master Bernard Maingain, one of the members of the group of lawyers who defends Doctor Oly Ilunga, who calls on the DRC to respect the rule of law.

"  We are before someone who has not benefited from the right of a member of the government to be first charged by the Assembly and who is directly referred to the Court of Cassation, ruling first and as a last resort , he says. Then, after reading the judgment, we see that there are a number of legal irregularities in the file and, on the basis of these irregularities, we decide what is something traditional in all respects. judicial authorities of the world, that is to say an extraordinary remedy not on the merits but on the respect of the law, of legality. This is called the cassation appeal. We file the request, it is accepted and then, a little later, the clerk, on my own initiative or on instruction, decides to declare this request inadmissible  ”.

► DRC: ex-Minister of Health Oly Ilunga sentenced for embezzlement

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