A court in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) last Tuesday sentenced former Justice Minister Constant Mutamba to three years of forced labor and five years of ineligibility for embezzling public funds, according to local media reports.
The 37-year-old former minister was accused of violating public procurement rules in a prison construction project and had announced his resignation on June 18.
He was found guilty of having transferred, without prior government authorization, the sum of $19.9 million in public funds to a company for the construction of a prison in Kisangani (northeast), with an overall budget of about $40 million.
Constant Mutamba, who was also ordered to repay the $19 million, had been placed under house arrest on Monday, the day before the hearing. He had been banned from leaving the capital since June.