00:01Prosecutors in the Democratic Republic of Congo have requested 15 years of hard labor
00:05for former Justice Minister Constant Mutamba and his co-defendant Shansar Borukola.
00:11They accuse Mutamba of being the mastermind behind the fraudulent disbursement
00:15of some $20 million from the Uganda Victims' Reparation Fund.
00:20The money was intended to compensate Congolese citizens harmed by Uganda's military interventions
00:25and illicit exploitation of natural resources between 1998 and 2003.
00:30But the prosecution alleges that it was instead distributed to companies and individuals
00:35who were not entitled to receive the funds.
00:38Borukola was in charge of managing the reparations awarded to the DRC by the International Court of Justice in 2022.
00:45Mutamba is currently serving a three-year sentence for a previous conviction for embezzlement of public funds
00:50and was not represented at the hearing.
00:53Borukola's lawyers, for their part, denounce the prosecution's case
00:56is being based on unsubstantiated facts, speculation and conjecture.
01:01The Court of Cassation will deliver its ruling on the 2nd of September.
