Former Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) president Joseph Kabila went on trial in absentia on Friday on charges including treason over alleged support for Rwanda-backed militants, an AFP reporter at the court said.
Kabila, who has lived outside the DR Congo for two years, stands accused at a military court of plotting to overthrow the government of Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi — a charge that could yield a death sentence.
He also faces charges including homicide, torture and rape linked to the anti-government force M23, the charge sheet said.
Photo: Reuters
Other charges include “taking part in an insurrection movement,” “crime against the peace and safety of humanity” and “forcible occupation of the city of Goma.”
Kabila arrived in May in that eastern city, seized by the M23 in January before the militia and the government this month signed a pledge to seek a permanent ceasefire.
Tshisekedi has branded Kabila the brains behind the armed group, which has seized swathes of the resource-rich Congolese east with Rwanda’s help.
The court opened his trial at 10:20am in Kinshasa.
People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy secretary-general Emmanuel Shadari dismissed it as a “political trial” that he said would “divide the Congolese people” during peace negotiations.
The proceeding “is anything but a fair trial. With a justice system that is not independent, the conviction is already decided — the rest is theatre, a ridiculous staging,” Shadari said.
Congolese Deputy Minister of Justice Samuel Mbemba said at the hearing: “The courts do not negotiate, they will do their work independently.”
The charge sheet seen described Kabila as “one of the initiators of the Congo River Alliance” (AFC), the M23’s political arm.
It accuses him of colluding with Rwanda to try to “overthrow by force the power established by law.”
The charge sheet also accused him of being responsible for atrocities committed by the movement in the north and south Kivu provinces.
Rwanda denies providing military backing to the M23, but UN experts said its army played a “critical” role in the group’s offensive in that region.
The AFC and M23’s executive secretary Benjamin Mbonimpa distanced the movement from Kabila at a news conference in Goma on Friday.
He told a news conference that the government should not “label him an AFC/M23 member” just because he had come to the city.
Kabila “as a Congolese citizen is free to go wherever he likes,” he said, branding the trial part of a “malevolent strategy” against the ex-president.
Kabila has rejected the case as “arbitrary” and called the courts “an instrument of oppression.”
The upper house of the legislature lifted his immunity as senator for life to allow his prosecution.
The court on Friday heard from military prosecutor Rene-Lucien Likulia, who asked it to judge Kabila in his absence.
It scheduled the next hearing for Thursday next week.
SPEAKING OUT: After Siranudh Scott’s allegations surfaced, celebrities and public figures took to social media to share their own experiences of sexual misconduct and abuse A high-profile alleged sexual abuse case within a wealthy Thai beer brewing family has prompted a wave of painful accounts from survivors of unconnected abuse in the conservative nation. Siranudh Scott, a member of the billionaire Thai family that founded the ubiquitous Singha beer brand, posted an emotional video this month accusing his elder brother Sunit of repeatedly abusing him when he was a teenager. Sunit, who is in his 30s, later denied the allegations in a video posted online, but Singha parent Boonrawd dismissed him from his executive role with the company on Tuesday last week. “I felt I needed to speak
SEEKING ORDER: Rodrigo Paz said that ‘anyone who wants to destroy the nation will have to deal with this president and the full force of the constitution’ Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz on Wednesday said that the nation was at a “breaking point” after nearly a month of protests that have caused shortages of food, fuel and medicine. Paz, who took office six months ago amid the worst economic crisis there in four decades, is battling a groundswell of fury over his policies. The political capital, La Paz, has been besieged by low-income workers and members of the indigenous majority calling for his resignation. “The country needs order and is reaching breaking point,” the 58-year-old said at a public event in La Paz, renewing his appeal for dialogue. On Tuesday, the Bolivian
A Hong Kong astronaut is to join a Chinese space mission for the first time as part of a three-person crew launching today, as Beijing edges closer to its goal of landing people on the moon. The Tiangong space station — crewed by teams of three astronauts that are typically rotated every six months — is the crown jewel of China’s space program, boosted by billions in state investment in a bid to catch up with the US and Russia. The Shenzhou-23 mission is to blast off at 11:08pm from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China, carrying three astronauts to
UPGRADED ALERT: The risk inside DR Congo is now considered ‘very high,’ while neighboring countries face a ‘high’ threat as the outbreak continues, the WHO said Ebola is spreading faster than responders can track it in eastern Congo, where health workers managed to follow up with barely one in five identified contacts in a single day. Authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) reported 83 confirmed infections, 746 suspected cases and 1,603 identified contacts as of Thursday, but health workers were able to follow up on only 342 contacts that day — about 21 percent of the total under monitoring — data released by the DR Congo Ministry of Public Health on Friday showed. The figures suggest the response is falling behind the outbreak itself,
RSS