Kinshasa: the incompetence of the peace court raised in the trial of a doctor

Kinshasa, May 12^th, 2025 (CPA) The incompetence of the N’djili peace court in the east of Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has been raised on Monday during a trial between the prosecution and a doctor accused of having administered to one of his patients substances of a nature to cause death. ‘After religiously following all the parties, we ask your court to declare itself incompetent to hear this case and to refer the parties to the Court of Appeal, which has the material jurisdiction to judge and sentence a doctor’,  has requested the prosecuting magistrate. For his part, lawyer Fabrice Mutamba, advocate for the victim Diwapovesa Belo, has pointed out that the transmission of harmful substances is an offence punishable by 10 to 20 years’ imprisonment. He has also agreed to the prosecutor’s request that the doctor be referred to his natural judge, adding that the Peace Court is not competent to hear this case because its jurisdiction is limited to 5 years. For his part, Johnny Mutangala, the lawyer for the doctor Chadrack Tumba, has concurred in the same view, saying that the Court of Peace is incompetent to judge a doctor. « Especially as the offence against him is more than 5 years. You cannot proceed with the investigation because the Peace Court cannot judge a doctor’, he has said. The Court has said that it is sufficiently enlightened and has taken the case under advisement in order to rule within the legal timeframe. In this trial, the defendant Chadrack Tumba, the treating doctor, had received his patient on May 5^th outside the hospital and had given him injections and other treatments, which after a few days had aggravated the illness. Not feeling well, the victim went to the N’djili General Referral Hospital where, after tests, the results had revealed intoxication due to the products administered by the doctor.