In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), six months after the assassination of opponent Chérubin Okende, his family is still waiting for the autopsy of the body.
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In mid-July 2023, the former Minister of Transport and ally of Moïse Katumbi was found riddled with bullets in his car, parked along an avenue in Kinshasa. Faced with the emotion caused by this assassination, the government promised an independent investigation.
The investigation stalls
Chérubin Okende’s driver and bodyguard were arrested but since then, the investigation has stalled, deplores Maître Laurent Onyemba, lawyer for the family, contacted by RFI.
“ The prosecution issued simple wishes to give the body to the family for burial, without making the autopsy reports available. And you know that this prerequisite is very important because we cannot bury the Honorable Cherub Okende without first knowing the circumstances of the death, why and when he was really killed.
No desire to turn on the light »
“ Therefore, we think, as we say at home, that we cannot be given a goat and walk on the rope that binds the goat. Asking the family to bury the honorable Chérubin Okende without first making the report available to them means, in fact, organizing a trial with the designated culprits who were the drivers and bodyguards who only served as alert to tell us that Mr. Okende had just been kidnapped from the facilities of the Constitutional Court. And therefore, we say for the moment that there is no will, neither political nor judicial, to want to shed light on the affair of the honorable Chérubin Okende and that the family does not intend to bury him until the truth is clarified. »
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