In a high-profile corruption crackdown in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a top court has sentenced former Justice Minister Constant Mutamba to three years of forced labor after convicting him of embezzling $19 million in public funds.<\/p>\n
The money was intended for a prison construction project in the country\u2019s north.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, roads around the Court of Cassation in Kinshasa were barricaded, and security forces were deployed in anticipation of unrest.<\/p>\n
The court ruled that Mutamba acted with the intent of illicit enrichment and bypassed legal procedures.<\/p>\n
Mutamba, who resigned in June, had pleaded not guilty. His lawyer, Joel Kitenge, called the verdict unjust.<\/p>\n
The former minister, a 2023 presidential candidate, once campaigned as an anti-corruption advocate. But his tenure was marked by controversy, including a proposal to reintroduce the death penalty for journalists reporting on Rwanda-backed rebels.<\/p>\n
While forced labor sentences in Congo are typically served in prison, it remains unclear if Mutamba will face the same fate.<\/p>\n
This case is seen as a key test in Congo\u2019s ongoing battle against deep-rooted corruption.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In a high-profile corruption crackdown in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a top court has sentenced former Justice Minister Constant Mutamba to three years of forced labor after convicting him of embezzling $19 million in public funds. The money was intended for a prison construction project in the country\u2019s north. On Tuesday, roads around the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17680,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"AP","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,2362,33],"tags":[4002,72],"class_list":["post-17679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-central-africa","category-featured","category-politics","tag-constant-mutamba","tag-democratic-republic-of-congo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}