In the capital, Kinshasa, a military court has opened the treason trial of former Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila.
His alleged support for M23 rebels, who hold sway over a sizable portion of the country’s mineral-rich east, is also the subject of additional charges against him, including rape and murder. He did not show up for the hearing and refutes the accusations.
President Félix Tshisekedi, who succeeded Kabila, has charged him of being the rebels’ mastermind.
The former president dismissed the action as “arbitrary” and claimed that the courts were being used as a “tool of oppression.”
A ceasefire deal between the rebels and the government was agreed last week, but fighting has continued.
Kabila had been living outside the country for two years, but arrived in the rebel-held city of Goma, in eastern DR Congo, from self-imposed exile in South Africa in May.
Pointing to overwhelming evidence, the UN and several Western countries have accused neighbouring Rwanda of backing the M23, and sending thousands of its soldiers into DR Congo. But Kigali denies the charges, saying it is acting to stop the conflict from spilling over onto its territory.
In order to prosecute Mr. Kabila on allegations of treason, murder, participation in an insurrectionist movement, and the forcible capture of Goma, the upper house of the legislature lifted his immunity as a senator for life in May.
After his father, Laurent, was shot dead in 2001, the 53-year-old took over as leader of the Democratic Republic of the Congo for 18 years. At the time, Joseph Kabila was only 29 years old.
After a contentious election in 2019, he gave President Félix Tshisekedi power, but they eventually had a falling out.
Kabila attacked the Congolese government, calling it a “dictatorship,” and claimed that there was a “decline of democracy” in the nation in a now-deleted May YouTube video.
Patrick Muyaya, a spokesman for the Congolese government at the time, denied Kabila’s claims, claiming he had “nothing to offer the country.”
Kabila’s close supporter Ferdinand Kambere, who was a member of his now-banned PPRD party, accused the government of “double standards” before to Friday’s hearing. He said that the trial was a means of removing Kabila from national politics and that the peace agreement was too kind on Kabila but too harsh on him.
Congolese Deputy Justice Minister Samuel Mbemba, however, had harsh words for any critics as the trial got underway.
“Justice does not negotiate, it does not join in dialogue. The calendar for justice is different from the political calendar.”
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