“Unveiling of safe contents in Congolese MP Edouard Mwangachuchu’s trial leaves many baffled and bursting with curiosity”

The trial of deputy Édouard Mwangachuchu Hizi continues before the Military High Court in the DRC. The contents of the safe seized at the lawmaker’s residence in Kinshasa were revealed during the hearing on Tuesday, April 11. He is accused of supporting the M23 rebels.
Reporter stationed at Kinshasa, Kamanda wa Kamanda Muzembe

Among the evidence presented on Tuesday, April 11, were the contents of the safe and other property seized from the deputy’s residence in Kinshasa, as well as war weapons brought back from North Kivu. They were found hidden in the defendant’s compound in the Masisi territory.

“I am a Congolese of integrity,” the deputy reacted in court. He denies accusations that these weapons were used by the M23 rebel movement. Me Mike Pungu Yodi, one of Édouard Mwangachuchu’s lawyers, speaks of a setup: “Our client lives here in Kinshasa. Everything that has been said, for us, is a setup to sink him.”
Complicity

The lawyers of the Congolese state, on the other hand, call for patience. “The public prosecutor has only made his report and submitted the documents to the Court. When we read these documents, it is at that moment that we will know what is really in them, what is the content of these documents,” said Me Damien Amoneyi.

Furthermore, in its report, the public prosecutor points out that the men who served as guards in Mwangachuchu’s company were mostly Tutsis, demobilized from the Rwandan army, who operated in the uniform of the Congolese national police. Uniforms provided, according to the public prosecutor, with the complicity of provincial administrative authorities.