DRC: opening of the trial of ex-Prime Minister Matata Ponyo

Former Prime Minister Augustin Matata Ponyo, here in 2015, is being prosecuted for embezzlement.

© AFP - FEDERICO SCOPPA

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The former Prime Minister of Joseph Kabila will have to explain himself before the Constitutional Court on the failure of the Bukanga-Lonzo agro-industrial project which cost the Congolese state more than 285 million US dollars.

He has always proclaimed his innocence, rather claiming to be the victim of political fierceness.

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With our correspondent in Kinsahasa,

Following a report published in November 2020, the General Inspectorate of Finance denounced the embezzlement of 205 million dollars out of 285 million disbursed by the Congolese State for the relaunch in 2014 of the large agro-industrial site of Bukanga -Lonzo, in the former province of Bandundu.

The Prime Minister at the time,

, is presented in this report as the intellectual author of this embezzlement.

According to Jules Alingeti, IGF number one, the audit was commissioned by Matata himself.

The former Prime Minister of Joseph Kabila will have to explain himself to the Constitutional Court.

Since he no longer has his immunity as a senator, the obstacles have been lifted.

A political trial for his supporters

But the former Prime Minister does not intend to let it go.

His defense could raise a few exceptions: the unconstitutionality of the Constitutional Court to try Senator Matata and the immunities lifted only for the case related to Zairianization should, think his relatives, prevent the holding of this trial.

The Matata camp insists that it is a political affair intended to weaken a probable candidate for the presidential election of 2023. 

This trial,

eagerly awaited by public opinion, will unfortunately not see the participation of his French lawyer who has received neither visa nor accreditation.

He is not registered with any Kinshasa bar and there is no cooperation in this area between the DRC and France, one explains in Kinshasa.

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