A Congolese former prime minister, Matata Ponyo Mapon, has been convicted of embezzling $245 million from a massive failed agriculture project.
Mapon, who served under President Joseph Kabila from 2012-2016, was sentenced to 10 years of forced labor by the Constitutional Court.
Deogratias Mutombo, former governor of Congo’s central bank, and Christo Grobler, a South African businessman, were also convicted in the case, receiving five-year sentences. Notably, all three were tried in absentia and are not currently in custody.
The project, launched under Kabila’s administration, aimed to develop 22 large agricultural projects, including a giant corn farm 260 kilometers southeast of Kinshasa.
However, it collapsed in 2017 due to non-payment issues. Mapon’s lawyer claims the case against him was unfair and politically motivated.
The conviction is part of President Felix Tshisekedi’s efforts to hold his predecessor’s government accountable for corruption.
Kabila has been accused by Tshisekedi’s government of supporting the M23 rebels in eastern Congo, which Kabila’s party denies.
