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Kabila rival mulling 'imminent' return to DR Congo

By AFP
Congo DR Congo's prominent opposition politician Moise Katumbi says he is determined to go home to save the Congolese people.  By Fabrice COFFRINI AFP
JUN 16, 2017 LISTEN
DR Congo's prominent opposition politician Moise Katumbi says he is determined to go home to "save the Congolese people". By Fabrice COFFRINI (AFP)

Paris (AFP) - Exiled DR Congo opposition leader Moise Katumbi on Friday said he was planning an "imminent" return after the UN asked President Joseph Kabila to guarantee he could campaign for election.

"I am going to go home. My return is imminent," said the powerful businessman and ex-governor of mineral-rich Katanga province.

"I return with a UN guarantee," Katumbi told a news conference. "I must go home to campaign and save the Congolese people."

Katumbi early this month filed a complaint with the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva saying he had been forced into exile in a bid to "keep (him) away from the presidential elections" due to take place by year's end.

He left the country in May 2016 to seek medical treatment but faces trial if he returns for the alleged recruitment of mercenaries.

He has also been sentenced to three years in jail in a real estate dispute and authorities have ordered him arrested if he returns from abroad.

The prominent government critic said he had turned to the UN because the judiciary in his country had been "manipulated" by the state.

Katumbi's 36-page June 2 complaint to the UN lists a series of wrongs allegedly committed against him, including "arbitrary" trials, police harassment and the arrest of his supporters.

In a letter dated June 13 the UN asked the DR Congo government "to take all the necessary measures to ensure" Katumbi "can return to Democratic Republic of Congo and can participate, freely and safely, as a candidate, in the presidential elections."

The letter, shown to the media by Katumbi's lawyer Eric Dupond-Moretti, also asked the government to guarantee "his right to freedom and safety by protecting him from any form of arrest or arbitrary detention".

Katumbi is a former Kabila ally who broke with the ruling party in September 2015, and a year later was named as a presidential candidate by the G7 group of opposition parties.

But Kabila failed to step down at the end of his mandate last December, sparking tensions across the vast mineral-rich nation of 71 million people.

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