DR Congo: Prosecutors seek 15-year prison sentence for ex-justice minister

Prosecutors in the Democratic Republic of Congo have requested 15-years of hard labour for former justice minister Constant Mutamba and his co-defendant Chançard Bolukola.

They accuse Mutamba of being the mastermind behind the fraudulent disbursement of some $20 million from the Uganda Victims’ Reparation Fund.

The money was intended to compensate Congolese citizens harmed by Uganda's military interventions and illicit exploitation of natural resources between 1998 and 2003.

But the prosecution alleges that the cash was instead distributed to companies and individuals who were not entitled to receive the funds.

Bolukola was in charge of managing the reparations awarded to the DRC by the International Court of Justice in 2022.

Mutamba is currently serving a three-year sentence for a previous conviction for embezzlement of public funds and was not represented at the hearing.

The former justice minister has rejected the accusations against him.

Bolukola's lawyers, for their part, denounced the prosecution's case as being based on unsubstantiated facts, speculation, and conjecture.

The Court of Cassation will deliver its ruling on 2 September.