Lieutenant-General Yav’s trial: the defense pleads for his client’s acquittal

Kinshasa, September 10th, 2026 (ACP).- The lawyer for a former commander of the 3rd Defense Zone in Nord-Kivu, in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), has pleaded for his client’s acquittal on Thursday, citing a lack of evidence to support the charges, during a hearing at the High Military Court in Kinshasa. “There is no evidence to support or corroborate the allegations that Lieutenant-General Philemon Yav facilitated the transport of ammunition to the M23 driver, who is the defendant Issa Shauri. This is a scenario fabricated from scratch to incriminate our client. Therefore, Your Honour, when you retire to deliberate, you will acquit our client,” has pleaded Mr. Parfait Kanyanga, one of Lieutenant-General Yav’s lawyers. He has maintained that the charges against his client are ‘purely imaginary’ and are not based on any material evidence establishing his guilt, whilst contesting the existence of a report demonstrating his client’s involvement in the transport of arms and ammunition for the benefit of the enemy. Lawyer Kanyanga has also cast doubt on the statements made by the defendant Shauri, arguing that the latter had been coached to incriminate his client in order to harm him. He has also pointed out what he has described as a lack of evidence to support the allegations concerning the facilitation of the transport of ammunition from Rwanda.The lack of evidenceFor his part, Lawyer Carlos Ngwapitshi, another lawyer for the defendant Yav, has also called for his client’s acquittal, emphasizing the lack of substantial evidence in the case. “There is no evidence; the case is empty. The facts are neither substantiated nor corroborated by the evidence,” he has insisted, stating that “one word sums it up: doubt”. According to him, the prosecutor from the Public Prosecutor’s Office had relied on mere declarations, assumptions, suspicions and inferences that were not backed up by material evidence. The defense has therefore contested several elements raised in the case file, notably the ‘alleged promise’ made to the security services, ‘the use of a mobile phone attributed to Turaya’, ‘the recruitment of Shauri in Nord-Kivu’ and his ‘alleged introduction to Mwangachuchu’. Advocate Ngwapitshi has also cast doubt on the statements alleging a promise of 50,000 dollars, which he claimed was intended to incriminate General Yav, pointing out that there was no evidence to show that anyone had actually offered or paid this sum to have his client accused. ACP/