Trial of former minister Mutamba: 30-day postponement requested by the defendant rejected

Kinshasa, July 30^th, 2025 (CPA) – The 30-day adjournment requested by the lawyers of Constant Mutamba, former Minister of Justice, accused of embezzlement of public funds, was rejected on Wednesday by the Court of Cassation of the Democratic Republic of Congo during the third hearing. « A stay of proceedings can only be granted when a party to the proceedings refers the matter to the Constitutional Court through the exceptional procedure of unconstitutionality referred to in a pending case before a court and not through legal action. (…) That is why the Court of Cassation, sitting in chambers, acting as a court of first and last resort in criminal matters, having heard the public prosecutor, accepts the request and declares it unfounded. It declares that there are no grounds for adjourning the case, » has said Justin Kibamba, presiding judge. As in previous hearings, Constant Mutamba’s lawyers raised numerous objections, initially to the two petitions filed with the Constitutional Court. Then, after these were rejected and their case was dismissed, they transformed the content of the same petitions filed with the Constitutional Court into objections before the Court of Cassation. In response, the Attorney General’s Office described these objections as ‘repetitive’ in the following terms: « These are repetitions. You have filed an appeal on grounds of unconstitutionality before the Constitutional Court; wait for it to rule. You are now reformulating the same petition as an objection. This reminds me of a principle of law that says “an objection on an objection is not valid”. Ruling for the second time on this exception, the Court of Cassation again rejected this argument on the grounds that it had already been the subject of a request and that it was necessary to wait for the response. After more than 10 hours spent in court that day, the defendant Constant Mutamba asked the Court to adjourn the hearing on the grounds that he was tired and needed to take medication. ‘Your Honor, I have been here since 8 a.m. I cannot continue. Please allow me to go home to take my medication and I will return for the adjourned hearing,’ he has said. Granting the defendant’s request, the Court of Cassation adjourned the case until Monday, August 4^th, 2025. Shortly before the case was adjourned, numerous witnesses for the prosecution and the defense, including Prime Minister Judith Suminwa, former Minister of Justice Rose Mutombo, former Inspector General of Finance Jules Alingeti, and Executive Secretary of the National Financial Intelligence Unit (Cenaref) Adlerd Kisula, were summoned by the parties to the trial to appear at the next hearings. Former Justice Minister Constant Mutamba is being prosecuted for embezzling US$19 million in funds intended for the construction of a prison in Kisangani, the capital of Tshopo Province in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.