© AFP – SAMIR TOUNSI
Downtown Lubumbashi, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, January 13, 2021 (illustrative image).
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), this Monday, January 10, at the Lubumbashi peace court, the trial of the director of “Justicia ASBL”, a human rights organization, opened. Maitre Timothée Mbuya is accused by Ferme Espoir, a farm belonging to ex-president Joseph Kabila, of damaging accusation and defamation.
With our correspondent in Lubumbashi, Denise Maheho
In September 2021, the NGO Justicia published a report on the spoliation of the national parks of Kundelungu and the Upemba and according to this report, the Hope Farm erected a wall which encroaches on the Kundelungu park.
This Monday, well before the start of the trial, a dozen civil society activists gathered in front of the Lubumbashi courthouse. Posters in hand, they want to get their message across.
« No to the instrumentalisation of justice, no to the plunder of the Kundelungu and Upemba parks. Our presence here is also a way of calling on the judicial authorities to be impartial in this kind of case. », Says Rams Wasolela, coordinator of the citizen movement« The People’s Voice ».
At 10 a.m., the hearing opens at the Lubumbashi peace court. The demonstrators all enter the almost full courtroom. This trial opposes the Ferme Espoir of former president Joseph Kabila to Maitre Timothée, head of the NGO Justicia Asbl. He is accused of defamation because his organization denounced the theft of Kundelungu Park by Ferme Espoir.
Barely started, the hearing is suspended.
« The first hearing lasted a few minutes because there was confusion on the part of the Ferme Espoir party to go to court. They appeal to Me Timothée Mbuya in court but they will file the summons with the office of the NGO which published the report. So the court declares itself not seized because there is an irregularity », Explains Me Hubert Tshiswaka, lawyer for the accused.
Read also: DRC: NGO denounces the spoliation of two national parks in the Katanga region
The lawyers of the Hope farm must once once more seize the court by respecting the procedure before the fixing of the date of the next hearing.