Former Minister of State, Minister of Justice and Garde des Sceaux of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Constant Mutamba, was found guilty of embezzlement of public funds intended for the construction of a prison in Kisangani. The Court of Cassation pronounced a sentence of 3 years of forced labor, five years of ineligibility, a prohibition of access to any public office, as well as the restitution of the sum of 19 million US dollars. Constant Mutamba, known for having been the terror of the Kulunas these criminal groups feared in the streets of Kinshasa was accused of having embezzled nearly 20 million dollars allocated to the construction of a modern penitentiary in Kisangani, in the province of Tshopo. The project, signed in April 2025 with a construction company, had been marked by major irregularities, notably the lack of validation by the Council of Ministers and the direct transfer of funds from the account of the Ministry of Justice to that of the company without the required controls. During the trial, the public prosecutor had requested a sentence of ten years of hard labour, with ten years of ineligibility after the execution of the sentence, as well as deprivation of the right to conditional release and exclusion from all public office. La défense de Constant Mutamba disputed these accusations, affirming that the funds were well present at the bank and that the former minister had “never taken a single dollar”.
Constant Mutamba, the terror of the Kulunas, sentenced to three years’ hard labour
