A member of parliament in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the owner of a significant mining business have been condemned to death in Kinshasa by the military justice system on accusations including “participation in the M23 insurgency” and “treason.”
The death penalty is often pronounced in the DRC, but has not been applied for 20 years and is systematically commuted to life imprisonment.
The prosecution had asked life imprisonment for Édouard Mwangachuchu, 70, the elected representative of Masisi in the volatile region of North Kivu (eastern DRC), in August.
According to reports, the High Military Court did not award any mitigating circumstances to the condemned guy, who was not present during the sentence’s pronouncement.
He was found guilty of “illegal possession of weapons and munitions of war,” “participation in the M23 insurgency,” and “treason,” according to General Robert Kalala, the High Court’s presiding judge.
The M23, for “March 23rd Movement”, is a predominantly Tutsi rebellion which, with the support of Rwanda according to Kinshasa, has seized vast swathes of territory in North Kivu since the end of 2021.
Mr. Mwangachuchu was arrested on March 1 in Kinshasa, held first in Makala, the Congolese capital’s main prison, and then transferred to the Ndolo military prison, where the 30 or so hearings of his trial were held.
His co-defendant, Robert Muchamalirwa, a police captain prosecuted for “violation of orders”, was acquitted and the court ordered his immediate release.
Mr. Mwangachuchu’s defense, which had pleaded for acquittal, announced its intention to appeal to the Supreme Court. Speaking to the press, Me Thomas Gamakolo denounced the “iniquitous decision, motivated by considerations alien to the law”.
According to him, it is “a trial based on ethnic hatred and deductions”. “We have never been able to prove that Mr. Mwangachuchu has any links with Rwanda”, but “because of his ‘tutsity’, we have established a presumption of guilt”, said Mr. Gamakolo.
