Joseph Kitangala Kibala was arrested for the second time last Friday on the basis of a complaint from the head of the industry promotion fund Patrice Kitebi.
He was released in December last year, after 18 months in prison, for bringing charges against the same leader. In question: a radio program and two letters from Joseph Kitangala Kibala addressed to the Ministers of Justice and the Minister of Industry to request that the investigations against the former Minister be restarted.
Joseph Kitangala Kibala presents himself as a whistleblower and accuses for several years the former minister Patrice Kitebi of embezzlement, he formally filed a complaint several times and for his lawyer, Me Célestin Mukosa, instead of putting his client in jail, it would be better to examine the content of his accusations.
“As long as justice has not yet verified my client’s accusations, how can I explain that he can be arrested and detained? It is indeed an arbitrary arrest and deprivation of liberty to silence him. ”
For Patrice Kitebi’s lawyer, Me Carlos Ngwapitshi, not only are Joseph Kitangala Kibala’s allegations unfounded, but his arrest is justified. “In the order that granted him temporary release, he was forbidden to return. Unfortunately, when he left, Kitangala repeated the same thing, he wrote letters condemning the hijackings … ”
In defense of Joseph Kitangala Kibala, the preliminary release order did not in any way prevent his client from resuming his representations in government, and if this had been the case, a new case against him would not have been initiated.
