A former Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo was sentenced to a decade of forced corruption work.
Augustin Matata Ponyo was found guilty of embezzlement of approximately $ 245 million (182 million pounds sterling) Public funds from the Congolese Constitutional Court on Tuesday, alongside Deograetias Mutombo, the former governor of the Central Bank of Dr Congo.
Matata’s lawyer told the news agency in Reuters that the decision was unfair and politically motivated.
Part of the funds were taken from a major agricultural development intended to combat chronic food shortages of the country.
Matata was Prime Minister of the DRC from 2012 to 2016 and now directs leaders and governance for the development of the country (LGD).
Before his minister, he was Minister of Finance and received praise from the International Monetary Fund at the time to stabilize the country’s economy.
DEOGRATIAS MUTOMBO, the former governor of the central bank, was also sentenced to five years of forced work in the same case and did not publicly comment on the decision.
Forced labor is legal in Dr Congo when he is mandated by a court for a criminal sanction, According to the US State Department.
The two men are prohibited from the public service for five years from the end of their forced working conditions, reports the AFP news agency.
Matata, who campaigned against the president of the DRC, Felix Tshisekedi, during the 2023 vote before abandoning, has always denied the accusations.
The case extended over almost four years since the country’s general finance inspection reported the theft of the Bukanga-Lonzo agro-industrial park in 2020.
The park was one of the largest agricultural investments in Africa, according to the Reuters news agency and the African Development Banking Group expected to provide 22,000 jobs.
It was intended to provide a stay of the 28 million people who are currently faced with acute food insecurity in Dr Congo, which has been in the grip of conflicts for over 30 years, from the Rwandan genocide of 1994.
