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The authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo try to lift the immunity of former President Joseph Kabila of persecution after he had accused him of supporting rebels in the east.
There was a “substantial amount of documents, testimonies and material facts” that Kabila connected to the M23 -the armed group, said Minister of Justice Constant Mutamba on Wednesday.
The M23 currently checks parts of the mineral -rich east of the country after making considerable progress earlier this year.
Kabila, 53, has not commented on the accusations, but has denied some connection with the insurgents in the past.
He led Dr. Congo 18 years, after he succeeded his father Laurent, who was shot in 2001. Joseph Kabila was then only 29.
After he went back, he received the title “Senator for Life”, which gives him legal immunity.
To pursue a legal case, the military public prosecutor of Dr. Congo de Senate asked this to destroy.
Kabila has been living outside the country for the past two years, in South Africa. But at the beginning of last month he said he would return to find a solution for the conflict in the east.
A few weeks later there were reports that the former president had returned and was in Goma, one of the cities imprisoned by the M23.
But these were denied by his political party, the People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD).
Last month the authorities prohibited the PPRD Because of his “ambiguous attitude” towards the occupation of Congolese territory by the M23.
Minister of Justice Mutamba, who ordered the seizure of Kabila’s assets last month, said that the former president should return to the country and “undergo justice … and present his defense”.
Dr. Congo and Rwanda, who denies accusations that it supports the M23, can enter into a peace agreement to put an end to the fights, which has forced hundreds of thousands of citizens from their homes in recent months.
The two countries signed a provisional agreement in Washington last week and said they would have a draft deal on Friday.
After being sworn in as president after the death of his father, Kabila won twice elections. His second and last elected term of office officially ended in December 2016, but he refused to resign and said it was not possible to organize elections, which led to deadly protests.
He remained in power for another two years until the elections were finally held in 2018.
In January 2019 he gave the power to Félix Tshisekedi, the official winner of a disputed election, which, according to many election observers, was rightly won by Martin Fayulu.
He accused Kabila and Tshisekedi to agree a deal to exclude him from power – something that both men have denied.
But the relationships between the couple deteriorated and the coalition of their parties was formally terminated in December 2020.
Kabila left Dr. Congo in 2023, officially to study in South Africa.
In January 2024, his doctoral thesis about the geopolitics of African relations with the US, China and Russia was validated at the University of Johannesburg.
Additional reporting by Aaron Akinyemi and BBC monitoring
