In memory of Congolese, we had never attended such a denouement in the trial of a public figure. After a month of proceedings being broadcast live on the national tv RTNC, a pillar of political life in drc, Vital Kamerhe, ally and director of the cabinet of the president of the democratic Republic of the Congo, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison and 10 years of ineligibility for “embezzlement” and “corruption” by the tribunal de grande instance of Kinshasa Gombe. Therefore, it has been found guilty alongside his co-accused, the contractor lebanese Samih Jammal, embezzlement of nearly $ 50 million for the financing of manufactured homes intended in the emergency program of the 100 days, launched by the head of State after his inauguration on 24 January 2019. In the DRC, the penalty of forced labour is not applied.
for a Long time, the man’s 61-year-old, who now appears beard pepper-and-salt and the rosary around the neck, believed was untouchable because of his status of director of cabinet at the presidency of the Republic, his past, and the demographic weight of his stronghold in the east of the DRC. “I have the full support of the head of State. I did the question ever and him no more, ” he said in November 2019.
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Go fast in call
At the end of the statement of the verdict, the defence immediately announced its intention to appeal the sentence to ” hard labor “, that moreover, the court finds contrary to the Constitution. The French lawyer of Vital Kamerhe, Pierre-Olivier On, was immediately denounced as a “sham trial” and ” an expedited process broadcast live on television.” He had already announced at the 11 June with his congolese counterpart to the referral of a ” working group of the united Nations on arbitrary detention “.
Vital Kamerhe is accused of having embezzled public funds allocated to the construction of 1,500 social housing units in the framework of the program called “100 days” of the new head of the State, Félix Tshisekedi, invested on January 24, 2019. “It is not me who attacked, it is the president of the Republic “, he had repeatedly launched in the face of the prosecution that he had just reproached her “tendency to hide behind the head of the State” Félix Tshisekedi.
Much more than a simple cabinet director, Vital Kamerhe is a political heavyweight who was abandoned in favour of Félix Tshisekedi, before the presidential election of December 30, 2018. He had to be himself a candidate in the next election in 2023, according to a political agreement between the two men sealed in Nairobi in November 2018.
Cheerful and warm, Vital Kamerhe was one of the few personalities to master the four national languages of the country, in addition to French which is the official language (lingala, swahili, kikongo, tshiluba). He is the father of 14 children, according to the civil status declined in the opening of the trial.
just appointed director of the cabinet after the inauguration of president Tshisekedi January 2019, he remarried on 14 February, the day of the St. Valentine’s day, with the ex-girlfriend of a famous congolese singer JB Mpiana.
The pomp of this wedding, “people” with Hamida Shatur, after an indian family, had angered the Congolese, at the moment the new government in power promising to govern for ” the people first “.
Heard as a witness, the wife of Vital Kamerhe has also listed in the bar list of the gifts received in the course of their marriage : 862, 000, 33, 000 euros, 10 million CFA francs (15,000 euros) and four new cars…
The court ordered the confiscation of the funds on its bank accounts.
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A trial in the multiple twists
Until the last moment, the court sat on Saturday will have had its share of suspense. On Friday, the constitutional Court has requested the court to transmit the record in the “state” and ” all business cessantes “, considering it as ” hit of the exception of unconstitutionality “. This “exception” had been raised by the defence of Vital Kamerhe on the 11th of June at the closing of pleadings.
His lawyers believe that the sentence of “forced labor” required by the public prosecutor, and taken by the court, is prohibited by the Constitution, even if it exists in the penal Code. The court responded to the constitutional Court that it was “impossible” to transmit to him the folder.
another event that has marked the trial of non-standard live, and which captivates the Congolese : the death of the chief magistrate who presided over the debates may 27, just two days after the second hearing. A investigation for “murder” has been opened, said the minister of Justice Célestin Tunda Ya Kasende, attributing his death to a “intracranial hemorrhage” resulting from a “traumatic” brain injury and “blows” received ” in a highly sensitive part of the skull “. The family of a magistrate Raphael Yanyi has disputed these conclusions of the autopsy report, focusing on the track of the poisoning.
Read also Case Kamerhe : the governance of Felix Tshisekedi sifted
A turning point for the fight against corruption ?
This trial is not isolated. In another case related to the programme of 100 days, fifteen years of imprisonment were required against three officials of public agencies and a contractor congolese, also for embezzlement, suspected of public funds. Judgment expected on June 23.
These operations “clean hands” are quite rare in a country ranked 168th out of 180 in the index of perception of corruption in the report 2020 by Transparency international. The keeper of the Seals had desired in February a “renewal” of the justice, recalling the will of the president of establishing ” a true State of law “.
The verdict was greeted with calm in Kinshasa, and some of the tension in Bukavu, the city of origin of Vital Kamerhe, where the police dispersed his supporters. The collective anti-corruption States has hailed ” a revival of the rule of law “, which must continue in the other trial in progress “.
former ministers, the current governor of the central Bank and several heads of departments of the State have testified on their share of responsibility in the disbursement of funds as well as on the role played by Vital Kamerhe.
” Some of the key players in the mechanisms of diversion seem to have been spared. It is difficult to understand “, regrets to the microphone of the AFP Floribert Anzulini, the citizens ‘ movement for Filimbi, who quotes a commercial bank at the heart of the matter. This is a view shared by the whistleblower, Jean-Jacques Lumumba, cited by the same source : “within the chain of spending “, officials would have to “be worried” because they ” have not done their work “.
For the Sindika Dokolo, ” justice has been severe with Vital Kamerhe “. On social networks, many voices were raised to ask themselves : “How much does Vital Kamerhe do is there not in our various african governments and governing bodies who are not worried by the justice ? “” I am sad of what is happening to Vital Kamerhe, who is sacrificed by those who think they have clean hands. In this country, a country that has clean hands ? Kasavubu has betrayed lumumba, and it is still remembered as if it was yesterday…. “explains a Congolese on Twitter. This other user has ruled : “Our leaders need to understand that a new wind in the management of the public thing is triggered, it is really a sad reality for Vital Kamerhe. “
Read also DR Congo : Vital Kamerhe in prison, and after ?
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