Ex-President Joseph Kabila Faces Treason Trial In Kinshasa

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Former president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, President Joseph Kabila, on Friday began his treason trial in a military court in the capital, Kinshasa.

53-year-old Kabila, who ruled DR Congo for 18 years after he took over from his assassinated father in 2001, is facing multiple charges, including treason, murder, participation in an insurrectionist movement, and the violent occupation of Goma, a strategic eastern city presently control by rebels.

He denied all the accusations and was also not present at the opening hearing.

The trial is coming on the heels of tension between Kabila and his successor, President Félix Tshisekedi, who accused his predecessor of being the mastermind behind the M23 rebels, a group that has seized and occupied large swathes of mineral-rich eastern DR Congo.

Kabila has described the case as politically motivated. In a statement earlier this year, the former DR Congo leader described the charges as “arbitrary,” claiming that the judiciary was being used as an “instrument of oppression.”

Irrespective of the ceasefire agreement between the government and M23 rebels last week, fighting began in the east, and this has complicated the context of the trial.

It is worth recalling that Kabila had been in self-imposed exile in South Africa for two years before he was seen in May in Goma, a rebel-controlled city, and this sparked tension concerning his allegiances and raised suspicion.

That same month, the DR Congo Senate lifted his immunity as a senator for life, and this paved the way for his prosecution.

International observers, including the United Nations and several Western governments, have also fingered neighbouring Rwanda for backing the M23 movement.

Kigali, however, denies the claims as it stated that the allegations are targeted at preventing the conflict from spilling across its borders.

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