DRC: Vital Kamerhe awaits his fate, his lieutenants give voice

At first instance, Vital Kamerhe was sentenced to 20 years of forced labor and ten years of ineligibility.

REUTERS / Baz Ratner

Text by: Pascal Mulegwa Follow

5 mins

Sentenced last year to 20 years of forced labor for including embezzlement of nearly $ 60 million as part of an emergency presidential program, Vital Kamerhe, the former chief of staff of Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi, awaits the verdict of the Kinshasa-Gombe Court of Appeal. 

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From our correspondent in Kinshasa,

Vital Kamerhe

had been sentenced

in sodium

with two other people: the Lebanese Jammal Samih, boss of the companies Samibo Congo SARL and Husmal, who had benefited from the contracts for the delivery and construction of prefabricated houses under the program. said of President Tshisekedi's "100 days";

and Jeannot Muhima Ndoole, in charge of the import-export service of the presidency. 

After having organized several marches across the country, Vital Kamerhe's lieutenants and activists are now awaiting his acquittal.

" 

Nothing but his acquittal,

 " says Billy Kambale, the new secretary general of the Union for the Congolese Nation (UNC), party of Kamerhe.

The appeal trial, open since July 2020 before sinking into

procedural suspense

, ended at the beginning of the month with the end of pleadings, in the absence of Vital Kamerhe and his lawyers, who had left the courtroom. . 

The court had just rejected the recusal of the judges requested by Daniel Shangalume Nkingi, alias Massaro, the nephew sued by another court, but in the context of the same case. According to the indictment, he is accused of having "solicited or accepted, directly or indirectly, an undue advantage, for himself or for others, in order to abuse his real or supposed influence with a view to winning public contracts in violation of the tendering procedure and the thresholds set by the legislation on the award of public contracts by mutual agreement ”. 

The stake of this appeal trial is to obtain the lifting not only of the heavy sentence weighing on Vital Kamerhe, but also to overturn all the associated judgments.

Several people not involved in the trial have indeed seen their property seized, such as Kamerhe's wife, Amida Chatur, or her daughter Soraya Mpiana. 

Lawyers for the former administration boss Tshisekedi remain confident even though they had not participated in the pleadings.

“ 

We had already raised all the means and grounds for appeal before the judges.

We are waiting for an acquittal, nothing more,

 ”summarizes Me Joseph Guhanika, the coordinator of the Kamerhe lawyers' collective. 

"A plot"

At the head of the administration of the party, Billy Kambale is exasperated, because for him, “ 

this lawsuit was only a speculation on the prefabricated houses. The prosecution has never provided the slightest proof of the guilt of our president. Time being the truth's best ally, we started with $ 400,000 embezzled, $ 260 million until it ended up at 57 million. A whole plot that had been put in place to mount public opinion against Vital Kamerhe

 ”. For Billy Kambale, its leader “

has indeed been the victim of something that we do not control until today

”. 

An avalanche of evidence that emerged after the first-degree conviction should lead to Kamerhe's acquittal, he said, speaking of stocks of prefabricated houses rotting in various ports and countries that allegedly complained. 

" 

We have faith in God and we appeal to the President of the Republic: it is time to give this innocent person his rights, we cannot sacrifice a major and unavoidable political actor like Vital Kamerhe with this bad judgment

", insists Billy Kambale, who asserts that the UNC “ 

will raise options

 ”.

" 

This trial has never been fair whether in the first degree or the second degree, in the course and in all that we had mentioned as dysfunctions,

 " says Kambale. 

But since the start of the round of anti-corruption trials under Tshisekedi, the appeals court has issued rulings without complacency.

It has often increased the sentences of the first instance.

Sentenced to 20 years of forced labor, Kamerhe and the Lebanese Sammal Jamih did not appear in court for this tense appeal trial.

Both men are officially sick.

Kamerhe, also sentenced to 10 years of ineligibility once his prison sentence has been carried out, is still being taken care of in a health structure in Kinshasa, according to his lawyers and lieutenants.

While the hearings in the first-degree trial had been broadcast end-to-end on state television (RTNC) screens, no appeal hearing was covered by the press, all requests for accreditation being systematically rejected by the court which judges for the first time in the history of the country a political actor convicted while he was still director of the presidential cabinet.

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