The authorities of the Democratic Republic of Congo seek to raise the immunity of former President Joseph Kabila against prosecution after having accused him of supporting the rebels to the east.
There was a “substantial body of documents, testimonies and material facts” connecting Kabila to the armed group of the M23, the Minister of Justice, Constant Mutamba said on Wednesday.
The M23 currently controls certain parts of the East rich in minerals of the country after having carried out significant advances earlier this year.
Kabila, 53, did not comment on the accusations but in the past denied any link with the insurgents.
He directed Dr. Congo for 18 years, after having succeeded his father Laurent, who was shot in 2001. Joseph Kabila was only 29 years old at the time.
After resigning, he received the title of “senator for life”, which gives him legal immunity.
In order to continue a legal affair, the military prosecutor of Dr Congo asked the Senate to overthrow this.
Kabila has lived outside the country in South Africa for two years. But at the beginning of last month, he said he would come back to help find a solution to the east conflict.
A few weeks later, it was reported that the former president had returned and was in Goma, one of the cities captured by the M23.
But these were refused by his political party, the Popular Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD).
Last month, the authorities prohibited the PPRD because of its “ambiguous attitude” towards the occupation of the Congolese territory by the M23.
The Minister of Justice Mutamba, who ordered Kabila’s assets last month last month, said that the former president should return to the country and “face justice … and present his defense”.
Dr. Congo and Rwanda, who denies the accusations he supports M23, could go to a peace agreement to end the fighting, which has seen hundreds of thousands of forced civilians from their home in recent months.
The two countries signed a preliminary agreement in Washington last week and said they would have a project project by Friday.
After taking an oath as president after the death of his father, Kabila won the elections twice. His second and last mandate elected in his functions officially ended in December 2016, but he refused to resign, saying that it was not possible to organize elections, leading to fatal demonstrations.
He stayed in power for two more years until the elections finally occur in 2018.
In January 2019, he gave power to Félix Tshisekedi, the official winner of a contested election, who, according to many elections observers, was rightly won by Martin Fayulu.
He accused Kabila and Tshisekedi of concluding an agreement to exclude him from power – which the two men denied.
But relations between the pair have aggravated and the coalition of their parties officially ended in December 2020.
Kabila left Dr. Congo in 2023, officially to study in South Africa.
In January 2024, his doctoral thesis on the geopolitics of African relations with the United States, China and Russia was validated at the University of Johannesburg.
Additional report by Aaron Akinyemi and BBC Monitoring
