On Friday afternoon, 14 May, the Senate examined behind closed doors the request for the waiver of the immunity of former Prime Minister Augustin Matata Ponyo and rejected it. The senators considered that the referral to the Advocate General to the Constitutional Court was troubled by irregularities. The former prime minister returned to the DRC last weekend to defend himself, he says. He is accused by the judiciary and the Financial Supervision Authority of embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars on the mega-project in the agro-industrial park Bukanga Lonzo.
The senators considered that there was a procedural error, that it was not for the Minister of Justice close to the Constitutional Court to make this request, but the Court of Cassation.
Several lawyers among the members of the Senate spoke during the closing session on Friday, senators told RFI to explain that Augustin Matata Ponyo could not be tried by the highest court in the country, as he was no longer prime minister but senator.
On the side of the senators of the Holy Union, the majority in the Senate, we insist that this is not a refusal because of the merits or the relevance of the accusations raised by Congolese justice or the General Financial Supervision Authority. but of course. In short, the prosecutor is asked to review his copy.
Since then, several constitutional experts assure that Augustin Matata Ponyo must be tried by the Constitutional Court as Prime Minister, even for violations of common law. Since he committed these acts while in office. Other lawyers reserved their opinion and asked to wait to see the wording of the letter from the prosecution and the response from the Senate office.
What do we blame Joseph Kabila’s former head of government?
Augustin Matata Ponyo is accused of embezzling public funds and criminal association, according to a source familiar with the matter. It is the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority that revealed in a condemning report. According to the IGF, of the $ 287 million paid by the Treasury and the Industrial Marketing Fund, nearly $ 205 million was unjustified.
She already points to the Prime Minister as the main person responsible for these diversions, especially based on a letter signed by her and dated 10 February 2014, in which she demanded that the ministers concerned return the contract signed with a South African consortium, Africom. the management of Bukanga Lonzo.
According to a source familiar with the matter, the Public Prosecutor’s Office near the Court of Cassation deepened the investigation and discovered an entire ecosystem of companies whose shareholders or beneficiaries are family members of Augustin Matata Ponyo.
The latter condemns a political solitaire and ensures that it is the ministers and the management company who are mainly responsible for the failure of the project. He also filed a defamation complaint against the head of the Financial Supervision Authority.
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