The Democratic Republic of Congo’s former governor and opposition leader Moise Katumbi arrived in Lubumbashi on Monday, after being in exile for the last three years.
Thousands of excited supporters from Katumbi’s Ensemble pour le Changement party were present at the Luano airport to receive him, reported Reuters.
Katumbi, a wealthy businessman and former governor of Katanga province in the southeast of the country, fled the country in May 2016 after he was charged with several crimes including fraud, hiring foreign mercenaries and illegally acquiring second citizenship by former president Joseph Kabila’s government. He was sentenced in absentia to three years in prison for real estate fraud. His supporters claimed that the charges were aimed at preventing him from running in an election to replace Kabila. He was barred from standing in last December’s elections.
But, now, the new government led by Felix Tshisekedi has dismissed convictions against the 54-year-old politician paving way for his return to DRC as a free man. His fraud conviction was overturned by an appeals court last month. The prosecutors said they had also dropped their investigations into the mercenary accusations “given that the president of the republic has made easing political tensions his priority”.
“I’m happy to be back home, the truth always triumphs,” Katumbi said on his homecoming.
Notably, Tshisekedi has pardoned 700 prisoners including three political opponents of his predecessor Joseph Kabila since coming to power in January. He was declared a winner in long-delayed presidential elections on Dec. 30, 2018.
It currently remains unknown what role Katumbi plans to play in an opposition where he backed Martin Fayulu.
“It doesn’t matter how long night lasts, daybreak always comes. Welcome home to @MoiseKatumbi,” Fayalu noted in a tweet.
In related news, the DR Congo President on Monday named Sylvestre Ilunga Ilunkamba as the country’s next prime minister.
