(Reuters) -A Congolese former prime minister was convicted of embezzling millions from a huge failed agriculture venture, in one of the highest-profile corruption cases brought under President Felix Tshisekedi against the government of his predecessor.
Matata Ponyo Mapon, who served as prime minister from 2012-2016 under then-President Joseph Kabila, was convicted on Tuesday in a case involving the embezzlement of $245 million. He was sentenced to 10 years forced labour, the Constitutional Court said.
Deogratias Mutombo, former governor of Congo’s central bank, was sentenced to five years of forced labour in the case, as was Christo Grobler, a South African businessman, the court said.
None of the three is in custody and all were tried in absentia. Ponyo’s lawyer, Laurent Onyemba, told Reuters Ponyo is in Kinshasa, and the case against him was unfair and politically motivated. Congolese authorities believe Grobler is in South Africa and Mutombo is in Belgium.
The development, which included a giant corn farm 260 km southeast of Kinshasa, was touted as the first of 22 huge agricultural projects to be opened under Kabila, but collapsed in 2017 three years after production began. The South African company hired to run it left the country, saying it had not been paid by the government.
The case was opened in 2021 after investigators appointed by Tshisekedi began digging into the conduct of the previous government.
Kabila, who agreed to step down in 2018 after almost two decades in power, has been out of the country since late 2023, mostly in South Africa. Tshisikedi’s government has accused him of links to the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels that have captured territory in eastern Congo, which his party denies.
(Reporting by Sonia Rolley and Stanis Bujakera; Writing by Anait Miridzhanian and Robbie Corey-BouletEditing by Peter Graff)
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