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.
‘THEY KILLED HOPE’: Four presidential candidates were killed in the 1980s and 1990s, and Miguel Uribe’s mother died during a police raid to free her from Pablo Escobar Colombian presidential candidate Miguel Uribe has died two months after being shot at a campaign rally, his family said on Monday, as the attack rekindled fears of a return to the nation’s violent past. The 39-year-old conservative senator, a grandson of former Colombian president Julio Cesar Turbay (1978-1982), was shot in the head and leg on June 7 at a rally in the capital, Bogota, by a suspected 15-year-old hitman. Despite signs of progress in the past few weeks, his doctors on Saturday announced he had a new brain hemorrhage. “To break up a family is the most horrific act of violence that
HISTORIC: After the arrest of Kim Keon-hee on financial and political funding charges, the country has for the first time a former president and former first lady behind bars South Korean prosecutors yesterday raided the headquarters of the former party of jailed former South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol to gather evidence in an election meddling case against his wife, a day after she was arrested on corruption and other charges. Former first lady Kim Keon-hee was arrested late on Tuesday on a range of charges including stock manipulation and corruption, prosecutors said. Her arrest came hours after the Seoul Central District Court reviewed prosecutors’ request for an arrest warrant against the 52-year-old. The court granted the warrant, citing the risk of tampering with evidence, after prosecutors submitted an 848-page opinion laying out
North Korean troops have started removing propaganda loudspeakers used to blare unsettling noises along the border, South Korea’s military said on Saturday, days after Seoul’s new administration dismantled ones on its side of the frontier. The two countries had already halted propaganda broadcasts along the demilitarized zone, Seoul’s military said in June after the election of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, who is seeking to ease tensions with Pyongyang. The South Korean Ministry of National Defense on Monday last week said it had begun removing loudspeakers from its side of the border as “a practical measure aimed at helping ease
STAGNATION: Once a bastion of leftist politics, the Aymara stronghold of El Alto is showing signs of shifting right ahead of the presidential election A giant cruise ship dominates the skyline in the city of El Alto in landlocked Bolivia, a symbol of the transformation of an indigenous bastion keenly fought over in tomorrow’s presidential election. The “Titanic,” as the tallest building in the city is known, serves as the latest in a collection of uber-flamboyant neo-Andean “cholets” — a mix of chalet and “chola” or Indigenous woman — built by Bolivia’s Aymara bourgeoisie over the past two decades. Victor Choque Flores, a self-made 46-year-old businessman, forked out millions of US dollars for his “ship in a sea of bricks,” as he calls his futuristic 12-story
RSS