Bank robbery trial in Kinshasa: Honorine Porche appeals her conviction

Kinshasa, March 30^th, 2026 (CPA).– The military court of Gombe, in the northern part of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, heard Monday the case of Honorine Porche, who has filed an appeal against her 10-year sentence handed down at first instance in the bank robbery trial, during a hearing held at the Makala Central Prison. “Honorine Porche was prosecuted for three offenses: criminal conspiracy, armed robbery and terrorism. However, she was acquitted of the first charge. The Kinshasa-Gombe military garrison tribunal sentenced her to 10 years in prison for the other two offenses, as the acts occurred under the same circumstances of time and place. It is against this conviction that she has appealed, on the advice of her lead counsel,” said Samuel Atweke, lawyer at the Kinshasa-Matete Bar. The appeal trial is now at its third hearing before the Kinshasa-Gombe military court. In this case, there are two civil parties: Rawbank and Bijou Bidor, owner of the hotel where Honorine Porche, a German of Congolese origin, had been staying in Kinshasa prior to her arrest in connection with the robbery of Rawbank. According to the lawyer, during the last hearing on March 23, Rawbank withdrew from the case, while Bijou Bidor—whose hotel had been searched and temporarily closed by the competent authorities, resulting in damages including the breaking of a room door—maintained her status as a civil party.