Kinshasa, May 20th, 2025 (CPA)- The former Prime Minister, Augustin Matata Ponyo, has been sentenced on Tuesday by the Constitutional Court of the Democratic Republic of Congo to 10 years’ hard labour for misappropriating public funds allocated to the Bukanga-Lonzo agro-industrial park project, at a hearing held in Kinshasa. The former Prime Minister, Augustin Matata Ponyo, has been sentenced on Tuesday by the Constitutional Court of the Democratic Republic of Congo to 10 years of hard labour for misappropriation of public funds allocated to the Bukanga-Lonzo agro-industrial park project, at a hearing held in Kinshasa.
« The Constitutional Court finds established in fact and in law the offence of embezzlement of public funds in the sum of 158,849,413 US dollars, charged against the defendants Augustin Matata Ponyo and Kristo Grobler, and sentences each of them to 5 years hard labour. Finds that the offence of embezzlement of the sum of 89 million US dollars charged to the defendants Augustin Matata and Deogratias Mutombo Mwana Nyembo is established in fact and in law. Consequently, sentences each of them to 5 years’ hard labour. Finds that the two offences of embezzlement of public funds committed by the defendant Augustin Matata Ponyo are in material concurrence, sentences him on this count to a cumulative penalty of 10 years’ hard labour », has stated Dieudonne Kamuleta Badibanga, President of the Constitutional Court.
The Court has also handed down additional sentences prohibiting the defendants Augustin Matata and Deogratias Mutombo from voting and standing for election for 5 years after they have served their main sentence, prohibiting them from holding any public or parastatal office at any level, and depriving the defendants Matata Ponyo and Deogratias Mutombo of their right to conviction, conditional release and rehabilitation; the Court has also ordered the defendants Augustin Matata and Deogratias Mutombo to be released from prison; has added the presiding judge Dieudonne Kamuleta. The Court also ordered the final expulsion from DRC territory of Grobler Kristo, after he had served the sentence imposed on him, and ordered the confiscation of property in proportion to the sum embezzled of 158,849. 413 dollars for the defendants Matata Ponyo and Globler Kristo and 89 million US dollars for the defendants Augustin Matata and Deogratias Mutombo, before ordering each of these defendants to pay one third of the costs of the proceedings, payable within the legal time limit, failing which they will be subject to 30 days’ imprisonment, has concluded the president of the Constitutional Court.
In the grounds for its ruling, the Court responded to the objections raised by Matata’s lawyers concerning its lack of jurisdiction to judge a former Prime Minister, stating that ‘Article 163 of the Constitution lays down the personal jurisdiction of the Constitutional Court and Article 164 lays down its material jurisdiction, taking into account the time at which the offence crystallised; while maintaining, as a result, that it is competent to judge a Prime Minister for acts committed in the exercise of his duties’, Dieudonne Kamuleta has recalled. The former Prime Minister Augustin Matata Ponyo and his co-defendants Deo Gracias Mutombo, former governor of the central bank, and the South African businessman were found guilty of misappropriation of public funds in connection with the Bukanga agro-industrial park by the Constitutional Court. ‘It is established both in fact and in law that Augustin Matata Ponyo is guilty of misappropriating public funds to the amount of 158.849.413 dollars. Consequently, the court sentences the two defendants to 5 years of hard labour and the defendants Augustin Matata Ponyo and Deo Gracias Mutombo mwana Nyembo to 5 years of hard labour for the misappropriation of $89 million,’ has said the presiding judge Dieudonne Kamuleta Babibanga. In addition to these main convictions, other complementary sentences were handed down, namely a seizure of the assets of all the defendants in proportion to the sums embezzled, given that they had become rich as a result of this act, a sentence of ineligibility and deprivation of voting rights after serving the sentences on Augustin Matata Ponyo and Deo Gracias Mutombo, and a definitive expulsion from Congolese territory of the South African businessman Kristo Goebler.
Before delivering its verdict, the Constitutional Court responded to the objections raised by Matata’s lawyers regarding the Constitutional Court’s lack of jurisdiction: ‘Article 163 lays down the personal jurisdiction of the Constitutional Court, while Article 164 lays down its material jurisdiction, taking into account the time at which the offence crystallised, so that it is competent to judge a prime minister for acts committed during the exercise of his duties’, has declared the presiding judge, Dieudonne Kamuleta. With regard to the application to reopen the proceedings made by Kristo Grobler’s lawyers, the court noted that it is only possible to reopen the proceedings before the verdict is delivered if there is a new fact or essential evidence that has not been examined in the course of the investigation, emphasising that in the present case it will not grant this dilatory procedure, which is clearly intended to delay the proceedings, but also because there is an absence of a new and relevant fact », said presiding judge Kamuleta. CPA/