By Enyichukwu Enemanna
A former Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Prime Minister has been sentenced to a ten-year jail term with forced labour in connection with a graft case in which he was found guilty of embezzling about $245m of public funds.
Augustin Matata Ponyo was convicted by the Congolese Constitutional Court on Tuesday, alongside the former governor of the DR Congo’s central bank, Deogratias Mutombo.
The ruling is unfair and politically motivated, the legal representative of Matata, who served as Prime Minister of the DRC from 2012 to 2016, said. He now heads the country’s Leadership and Governance for Development party (LGD).
Part of the funds were siphoned from a major agricultural development intended to tackle the country’s chronic food shortages, a BBC report says.
Before becoming the Prime Minister, Matata was the East African country’s finance minister and was praised by the International Monetary Fund at the time for his role in stabilising the economy.
Deogratias Mutombo, the former central bank chief, was sentenced to five years of forced labour in the same case.
Both men have been barred from holding public office for five years after completing their jail sentences.
Matata, who campaigned against the incumbent President Felix Tshisekedi in the 2023 election before dropping out of the race, has repeatedly denied the corruption charges.
According to the US State Department, forced labour is legal in DR Congo when mandated by a court for a criminal penalty.
The case has lingered for over four years since the theft from the Bukanga-Lonzo Agro-Industrial Park was first reported by the country’s Inspectorate General of Finance in 2020.
The park was one of Africa’s largest-ever agricultural investments, and the African Development Bank Group had hoped that it could provide up to 22,000 jobs.
