[REVISION HISTORY]
DRC FRIVAO corruption trial – August 2026 update
Updated 1 time since CLSTR started tracking revisions of this situation.
What changed
2026-07-27 20:25 UTC → 2026-08-20 08:05 UTC ·
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DRC FRIVAO corruption trial – July August 2026 update
On 13 July 2026 2026, former Justice Minister Constant Mutamba appeared before the Congolese Court of Cassation in Kinshasa. The court postponed the substantive hearing on the alleged misappropriation of more than US$20 million from the FRIVAO fund to 27 July, citing Mutamba’s request for access to the case file and other procedural objections. Mutamba, who had previously been sentenced to three years for fund misuse, stood despite earlier reports of ill health, sparking public debate about his condition. In a handwritten four‑page four-page letter dated 23 July, Mutamba, detained pending trial, accused the political‑judicial political-judicial authorities of “politico‑judicial “politico-judicial harassment” and demanded that the national broadcaster RTNC and other media broadcast his upcoming hearing live, invoking constitutional guarantees of public access. He also complained that a clerk at the Gombe High Court refused to record a citation against a court registrar for alleged forgery, alleging further procedural violations. On 27 July, Mutamba walked out of the Cour de cassation hearing, protesting what he said were false mentions inserted by court clerks and the refusal to register his complaint. He declared he would rather “drink hemlock like Socrates” than participate in a process he deemed flawed. By 19 August 2026, prosecutors requested 15 years of forced labor for both Mutamba and former interim FRIVAO coordinator Chancard Bulokola. The trial remains pending, with charges involve embezzlement and money laundering related to over $20.2 million in disputed transactions, including payments to Congo Energy, the defendants presumed innocent until a final judgment is rendered. Institute for Conservation of Nature, Divo SARL, Tropic Architecture, and the Tshopo Provincial Assembly. Bulokola has pleaded not guilty.
Versions
- 2026-08-20 08:05 UTC DRC FRIVAO corruption trial – August 2026 update
- 2026-07-27 20:25 UTC DRC FRIVAO corruption trial – July 2026
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