Kinshasa, October 1st, 2025 (CPA). – A defendant, a former convicted person at the International Criminal Court (ICC), has pleaded on Wednesday for his acquittal in the case pitting the public prosecutor’s office against 40 defendants alleged to be the perpetrators of the conspiracy against Tshisekedi, during a hearing at the High Military Court in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). ‘The High Military Court will conclude that the evidence presented by the prosecution is ineffective and will rule that the defendant Matthieu Ngudjolo could not have known of the existence of this alleged plot,’ has argued Rita Bitota, lawyer for the former defendant Matthieu Ngudjolo. She has added: ‘The High Military Court will therefore rule that the charge of refusal to denounce, which weighs heavily on her client, is not established in fact or in law, and will acquit him.’ This legal practitioner has said she belonged to the school of thought that considers a lawyer’s plea to be like a skirt that plays two roles on a woman’s body. The first role of the skirt is to cover the body and the second is to attract, she has argued. ‘In this case, Mr President, we have told you at length about the irrelevance of all the evidence provided by the prosecution. What should attract you here is the lawyer’s conclusion,’ has added Ms Bitota. She has further argued: ‘When the High Court retires, despite everything we have demonstrated, in your hallowed chamber where you deliberate, to decide the fate of my client Matthieu Ngudjolo, you will apply your good conscience and declare our client innocent.’
She has also pointed out that the public prosecutor had brought her client before the court because he had been labelled an ex-rebel, asserting that in the military prosecutor’s analysis, nowhere had it been demonstrated that Matthieu Ngudjolo had any knowledge, direct or indirect, of the organisation of the alleged plot against the regime in power in Kinshasa. « You will therefore say that my client has the right to life, and you will acquit him. In the absence of reasonable doubt, you will say that this offence of refusing to report an offence falling within the jurisdiction of the military courts committed by a person subject to military jurisdiction, as provided for in Article 187, has not been established in fact or in law, and you will therefore dismiss him from all legal proceedings without charge, » has concluded Rita Bitota. The High Military Court has taken note of her plea, promising to take it into account during deliberations, has said Brigadier General Martin Kalala Kapuku, presiding judge. It should be noted that in this case, 40 defendants, including Brigadier General Ericsson Inyengele Bakati of the Republican Guard and other senior officers, are being tried for conspiracy to overthrow the legally established regime by force of arms and for refusing to report this offence. The plot has been preceded by a series of meetings, the last of which has been held in a local hotel in the Bandalungwa district of Kinshasa.