{"id":54272,"date":"2025-05-23T16:56:53","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T16:56:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/drc-strips-former-president-kabila-of-immunity-over-treason-charges\/"},"modified":"2025-05-23T16:49:54","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T16:49:54","slug":"drc-strips-former-president-kabila-of-immunity-over-treason-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/drc-strips-former-president-kabila-of-immunity-over-treason-charges\/","title":{"rendered":"DRC strips former President Kabila of immunity over treason charges"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a vote taken on Thursday, May 22, nearly 90 senators approved the motion to strip Kabila, 53, of the protections granted to him as a \u201csenator for life,\u201d a title he received after stepping down from power in 2019. Only five senators opposed the decision.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe senate authorises the prosecution and lifting of Joseph Kabila\u2019s immunity,\u201d declared Speaker Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde, following the vote.<\/p>\n<p>The decision follows mounting accusations that Kabila played a direct role in the resurgence of the M23 rebel group, which has seized control of several strategic towns in the eastern DRC, including Goma and Bukavu.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement issued on April 18, the Ministry of Justice claimed it possessed \u201ca substantial body of documents, testimony, and material facts\u201d linking Kabila to the rebels. It also announced the freezing of all of Kabila\u2019s movable and immovable assets and imposed travel restrictions on his alleged collaborators.<\/p>\n<p>Kabila has previously denied any ties to the armed insurgents.<\/p>\n<p>The former Head of State, who has been living in South Africa for the past two years, announced last month that he would return to help find a solution to the conflict in the east. A few days later, he was reported to have re-entered the country through the eastern region, which is under rebel control.<\/p>\n<p>He is expected to address the Congolese people on the night of May 23, 2025, following the lifting of his legal immunity. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-87838 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/kabila_j-3-7f81bnew.jpg\" alt=\"In a vote taken on Thursday, May 22, nearly 90 senators approved the motion to strip former President Joseph Kabila, 53, of the protections granted to him as a \u201csenator for life,\u201d a title he received after stepping down from power in 2019.\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Democratic Republic of Congo\u2019s Senate has revoked the legal immunity of former President Joseph Kabila, clearing the way for his prosecution on charges of high treason.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":2000087837,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[192],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-54272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-wycliffe-nyamasege"],"bylines":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":131}],"contributors":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":131}],"featured_image":{"id":2000087837,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/kabila_j-3-7f81b.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/kabila_j-3-7f81b.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/kabila_j-3-7f81b.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/kabila_j-3-7f81b.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/kabila_j-3-7f81b.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/kabila_j-3-7f81b.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000087837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54272"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=54272"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=54272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}