DRC: Minister of Justice calls for Willy Bakonga's return to prison
Justice Minister Rose Mutombo suggests the return of ex-minister Willy Bakonga to Makala central prison (illustrative image) AFP PHOTO / JUNIOR D. KANNAH
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1 min
The former Minister of Primary, Secondary and Technical Education, Willy Bakonga, will he return to prison?
Sentenced at the end of April to three years in prison for "money laundering" and "illicit transfer of capital abroad", he was released last Thursday, nearly 7 months after his arrest.
A day after this release and the outcry it provoked, Justice Minister Rose Mutombo raised anomalies in the decision and suggested that he be returned to prison.
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With correspondent in Kinshasa,
Patient Ligodi
In a correspondence sent by Rose Mutombo, Minister of Justice, to the Attorney General at the Court of Cassation, we learn that the act which allowed
the release of Willy Bakonga
is a letter sent to the director of the central prison of Makala by the Attorney General at the Kinshasa / Gombe Court of Appeal.
This correspondence contained a list of convicts who would be eligible for the collective pardon decision taken in July by the head of state.
However, the minister points out that the name of Willy Bakonga has been taken up even though the latter does not depend on the jurisdiction of the prosecutor at the Kinshasa / Gombe Court of Appeal.
The Minister of Justice disapproves of this approach and considers that it is a "
serious breach and an excess of power which undermines the execution of the Presidential Ordinance of July 28, 2021 on the collective measure of pardon.
".
She asks that Willy Bakonga return to prison.
"
The people convicted by the Court of Cassation must be brought back in the state they were in, before his letter, to the central prison of Makala,
" she said.
On the defense side of Willy Bakonga, his lawyers say that at this stage they have no comment to make on the outline of this release.
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To read also: DRC: the former minister Willy Bakonga released
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