June 23 (EUROPA PRESS) –
Vital Kamerhe, the former chief of staff of the president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Felix Tshisekedi, has been acquitted after appealing the verdict of a court that found him guilty of corruption in June 2020.
The courts found Kamerhe, one of the country’s great political figures, guilty, for which he initially faced a sentence of 20 years of hard labor and millions in fines for misappropriation of some 50 million dollars in funds earmarked for infrastructure, according to the Congolese portal Politico.
This appropriation would have occurred during the first hundred days of the Congolese president’s mandate, who did not make any statements about the case, while Kamerhe, 61, had denounced the process as a farce orchestrated by his enemies.
Kamerhe laughed out loud when the court began reading the sentence, in a televised trial that captivated the nation for months, fueled by the death of the initial magistrate in the case, Raphael Yanyi Ovungu, who died of a blow to the head.
The sentence was reduced to 13 years in prison during a first appeal trial in June 2021, although now, as confirmed by his legal team, made up of Maitre Jean-Marie Kabengela, he has finally been acquitted, as reported by 7sur7.
Kamerhe was arrested on April 8, 2020 after testifying before a judge investigating the case related to the One Hundred Days Program, which allocated more than 300 million dollars (more than 276 million euros) to infrastructure works and social housing.
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