Kinshasa – A court in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital Kinshasa acquitted an ex-presidential adviser of corruption on Friday, a defence lawyer said, closing a case that provoked uproar in the central African nation.
In September, the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and Swiss newspaper Le Temps published an investigation into Vidiye Tshimanga, then a special adviser to Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi.
Footage released by the publications showed Tshimanga promising two unidentified people, who claimed to represent a Hong Kong-based conglomerate interested in minerals, to protect their investment in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“If we do business together, I will take my percentage of the investment,” Tshimanga said in the footage.
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He also stressed his close relationship to Tshisekedi.
After the footage provoked outrage in his home country, a corruption trial against Tshimanga opened in Kinshasa on November 14. The prosecution asked for a three-year prison sentence.
The court acquitted the former adviser on Friday, Tshimanga’s lawyer Clement Ilunga told AFP.
The DRC is one of the poorest countries in the world, despite its vast reserves of minerals ranging from gold and copper to cobalt.
Corruption is endemic: the country ranks 169th out of 180 nations in the 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index by NGO Transparency International.
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Source: AFP
Picture: Twitter/@NamuliImmy
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