KINSHASA, Congo — Congo’s government says it has issued an international arrest warrant for opposition leader Moise Katumbi, who has been in exile since 2016.

Justice Minister Alexis Thambwe Mwamba said Thursday that the warrant was issued to several African and European countries.

Katumbi tried to enter Congo before the Aug. 8 deadline to register as a candidate for December’s presidential election. He said he was blocked at the border with Zambia.

The justice minister says Katumbi engaged in a “political show” in trying to return.

Katumbi had been a leading presidential contender before fleeing Congo in May 2016 as prosecutors announced their intent to try him on charges of hiring mercenaries, which he denied.

Opposition parties are calling on the government to allow Katumbi to return and stand as a candidate. </s> The Democratic Republic of Congo has issued an international arrest warrant for opposition leader Moise Katumbi, who has been in self-imposed exile since 2016.

Justice Minister Alexis Thambwe Mwamba said on Thursday that he should be arrested wherever he was found.

But Mr Katumbi told the BBC the warrant made no sense.

How can they issue an arrest warrant against me and yet two weeks ago, they blocked me when I tried to enter the country? Right now I am in Namibia and they can find me if they want to arrest me. My reaction is that those claims are being made by empty drums, just like they say empty tins make the loudest noise. The people that are subjecting Congolese to misery are those in leadership making false accusations against me.

It is those who are stealing and killing people right now that should face the law.”

Mr Katumbi was hoping to get into DR Congo ahead of a deadline earlier this month for candidates to register for long-delayed elections in December.

But as he tried to cross over the border from Zambia, he was blocked by the Congolese authorities.

A wealthy businessman and former governor, Mr Katumbi left DR Congo in 2016.

He was later sentenced in absentia to 36 months in prison on charges he says are politically motivated.

Who is Moïse Katumbi?

Was governor of the south-eastern Katanga province for almost a decade

In 2015 he broke ties with the ruling party when he accused President Joseph Kabila, his former ally, of wanting to cling to power

His popularity is partly down to his role as the president of a great source of Congolese pride – football club TP Mazembe.

(Source: BBC) </s> Congo on Thursday issued an “international” arrest warrant for opposition leader Moise Katumbi.

The central African country’s justice minister alleged that Katumbi had been planning to run in December’s presidential elections, but has been prevented from returning to Congo in time to register.

A former ally of President Joseph Kabila, Katumbi has been in self-imposed exile avoiding a slew of criminal charges.

The millionaire politician has denied any wrongdoing.

“An international arrest warrant has already been issued by the attorney general of the republic against Moses Katumbi, he must be arrested where he is found,” Justice Minister Alexis Mwamba said.

Mwamba said a number of African and European countries had been informed about the warrant.

Katumbi reportedly tried to cross into Congo from Zambia earlier this month, but was denied entry.

Katumbi, once governor of mineral-rich Katanga province, broke with Kabila in 2015 and has since been sentenced in absentia to three years in prison for property fraud. He also faces charges of “undermining state security.”

An ex-soldier and son of a former president, Kabila has repeatedly delayed elections in recent years resulting in massive anti-government protests, which security forces have at times used deadly force to quell.

Last week, Kabila, who has been in power since 2001, announced he would not be running again in the December 28 vote.

Instead, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadari will represent the ruling coalition, recently renamed Common Front for Congo (FCC).

The opposition presidential hopefuls include Felix Tshisekedi and Jean-Pierre Bemba – a former warlord who was jailed at the Hague before his conviction was overturned. </s> Former Katanga province governor and leading opposition figure in Democratic of Congo (DRC) has slammed the government over the issuance of an international arrest warrant in respect of his person.

Katumbi made news headlines last two weeks when he unsuccessfully tried to return to the DRC to file papers to contest for delayed presidential elections slated for December 2018.

He confirmed in an interview with the BBC that he was currently in Namibia. He tried to enter DRC by land having been denied authorization to enter with a private jet to Lubumbashi. Zambian authorities have said he should be arrested it found on their soil but Katumbi is not enthused as his government’s latest action.

The government says Katumbi is a fugitive and has thus sought international assistance to arrest him. He had asked weeks back that the government to allow him in and to be arrested over those claims.

“How can they issue an arrest warrant against me and yet two weeks ago, they blocked me when I tried to enter the country? Right now I am in Namibia and they can find me if they want to arrest me.

“My reaction is that those claims are being made by empty drums, just like they say empty tins make the loudest noise. The people that are subjecting Congolese to misery are those in leadership making false accusations against me,” he told the BBC.

Katumbi flew into exile in 2016 at the time to seek medical attention after he was teargassed whiles attending a court hearing in Lubumbashi.

He was sentenced in absentia to 36 months in prison over charges he has insisted were politically motivated.

Incidentally outgoing president Joseph Kabila is in Namibia attending what will be his last Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit. Kabila’s party has chosen Emmanuel Ramazani Shadari as its candidate in the elections. </s> The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has issued an international arrest warrant for opposition leader Moise Katumbi, who has been in self-imposed exile since 2016.

Justice Minister Alexis Thambwe Mwamba said on Thursday that the warrant by the DRC's attorney general was issued to several African and European countries.

"He must be arrested where he is found," he said.

Katumbi tried to enter DRC from Zambia before the August 8 deadline to register as a candidate for December's presidential election, but he was denied entry.

Mwamba said Katumbi engaged in a "political show" in trying to return.

The wealthy businessman had originally planned to fly from South Africa to Lubumbashi, the capital of Katanga province.

But the city's mayor said that Katumbi was refused entry, while the public prosecutor's office said the opposition leader had been charged with "harming the state's domestic and external security" and would be immediately arrested if he returned.

In a tweet sent out earlier in August after being barred entry, Katumbi said he would "fight" what he called an attempt to "withdraw from Congolese their right to real elections".

Katumbi had been a leading presidential contender before fleeing DRC in May 2016 as prosecutors announced their intent to try him on charges of hiring mercenaries, which he denied.

Once governor of mineral-rich Katanga province, Katumbi in 2015 broke with his former ally, President Joseph Kabila, and has since been sentenced in absentia to three years in prison for property fraud. He also faces charges of "undermining state security".

The millionaire politician has denied any wrongdoing.

Kabila, the son of a former president, has repeatedly delayed elections in recent years resulting in massive anti-government protests, which security forces have at times used deadly force to quell.

Last week, Kabila, who has been in power since 2001, announced he would not be running again in the December 28 vote.

Instead, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadari will represent the ruling coalition, recently renamed Common Front for Congo (FCC).

Opposition parties are calling on the government to allow Katumbi to return and stand as a candidate.

The opposition presidential hopefuls include Felix Tshisekedi and Jean-Pierre Bemba - a former rebel leader and vice president who was jailed at The Hague before his conviction was overturned. </s> Former warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba’s candidacy in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s upcoming presidential elections was deemed “inadmissible” by the country’s election commission on Friday, as opposition groups cried foul.

The commission rejected the candidacy of Bemba, a rival to DR Congo President Joseph Kabila, on the basis that he had been “convicted by the International Criminal Court” in March 2018 and handed a year in prison and a 300,000 euro fine for bribing witnesses.

Bemba’s war crimes convictions were overturned by the court in The Hague and he returned to Kinshasa in August after being acquitted.

Just ahead of the election commission’s announcement, the political opposition to president Kabila issued a fresh rallying cry, accusing the “powers that be” of seeking to “exclude” multiple opposition candidates.

Opposition groups called on Kabila to free up the electoral process and “stop giving injunctions to the election commission,” according to a statement signed by Bemba, and exiled opposition politicians Moise Katumbi and Felix Tshisekedi.

Overall, the election commission has excluded six out of the 25 candidates who had registered to run in the presidential elections, set for December 23.

In addition to Bemba, the commission has barred three of Kabila’s former prime ministers — Samy Badibanga, Adolphe Muzito, and Antoine Gizenga.

“These exclusions are unacceptable and show once again that the electoral commission is totally dominated by Kabila,” Moise Katumbi wrote on Twitter.

A former governor of Katanga who joined the opposition in 2015, Katumbi said that he had been blocked from returning to the DRC to register his candidacy.

He has been living in Belgium since 2016 and has been sentenced absentia to three years in prison. Considered a fugitive by the Ministry of Justice, he is the subject of an international arrest warrant.

“With the population, the opposition, civil society, our partners, let’s keep up the pressure, refuse to accept these sham elections,” Katumbi added.

The six excluded candidates have 48 hours to appeal to the Constitutional Court. The election commission must publish a final list of candidates by September 19. </s> The Democratic Republic of Congo’s Independent National Electoral Commission, CENI, has excluded opposition leader Jean-Pierre Bemba from a preliminary list of candidates ahead of long delayed elections.

Aside the former vice-president, CENI also rejected applications of five others including three former prime ministers. They cited reasons such as: “lack of nationality, no proof of payment, candidates conflict with their own party, failure of the cards, conviction by a court.”

The inadmissible list included: Ifoku, Sami Badibanga, Moka Ngolo, Muzito Adolphe, Gizenga Antoine, Bemba Ngombo. With the current exclusion, there are 19 candidates running to succeed Kabila including ruling party’s Emmanuel Ramazany Shadary.

Bemba, a former warlord who earlier in August returned to Kinshasa to submit his candidacy for president after a decade in prison in The Hague for war crimes, had been seen as one of the frontrunners in the race to succeed incumbent Joseph Kabila.

The commission said a separate International Criminal Court (ICC) conviction for witness tampering was the reason for Bemba’s exclusion from the list.

Bemba was acquitted on appeal at the ICC of war crimes and crimes against humanity for murder, rape and pillage committed by fighters he sent to Central African Republic in 2002 but his witness tampering conviction stands.

Opposition parties condemned the election commission’s decision, which can be appealed before the final list is published in September.

CENI also said over 15,500 candidates had been passed to contest for seats in the national assembly. The elections due to have been held in December 2016 will finally be held in December 23, 2018. </s> South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday praised Joseph Kabila, the outgoing Democratic Republic of Congo head of state, for his “respect for the constitution”, according to a statement.

The presidents met in Kinshasa for a “working visit”, the African Union said, two days after Kabila announced his withdrawal from DR Congo’s presidential race which is scheduled for the end of the year.

Kabila on Wednesday ended months of speculation by putting his weight behind former interior minister Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary to be his successor for the December 23 poll.

Ramaphosa and Kabila discussed “the evolution of the political, electoral and security situations in the DRC as well as the strengthening of relations between the two countries and issues of regional interest”, a joint statement said.

They also recognised the “significant progress made in the electoral process” in the war-torn country Kabila has ruled for 17 years.

Ramaphosa, who is also the current head of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), praised his counterpart for “honouring his word to respect the constitution” of the DR Congo, the statement added.

Equatorial Guinea’s leading opposition party also hailed Kabila on Friday, calling his decision not to run “a giant step in the history of democracy in central Africa”.

“To be a good democrat is not only to win or lose elections, but also to give up power when the law and society requires it, (to avoid) the spilling of innocent blood,” said Gabriel Nse Obiang, the leader of the Citizens for Innovation (CI) party.

Meanwhile, supporters of DR Congo opposition leader Moise Katumbi, who has been barred from entering the country to contest the election, said on Friday they had appealed to a top court.

“We have gone to the Council of State to obtain the immediate lifting of this irregular measure”, Delly Sesanga of Katumbi’s Ensemble (Together) coalition told media.

Katumbi was refused entry last week as he tried to get home via Zambia before a deadline to submit his candidacy for the presidential polls.

The wealthy businessman and former governor of the province of Katanga has been living in self-imposed exile in Belgium since May 2016 after falling out with Kabila.

A country of some 80 million people, the Democratic Republic of Congo has never known a peaceful government transition since it gained independence from Belgium in 1960.

Kabila’s tenure over the vast mineral-rich country has been marked by a reputation for corruption, inequality and unrest. </s> It is surprise and surprise in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as seven opposition leaders on Sunday picked little known lawmaker Martin Fayulu as their joint candidate for the country’s long delayed presidential elections which would be held in December. The opposition leaders meeting in the Swiss city of Geneva in fact included two top figures Jean-Pierre Bemba and ex-provincial governor Moise Katumbi.

But both have been barred from standing in the election. So, who is Martin Fayulu and what led to his emergence as the opposition’s joint candidate? Africanews Nyasha Mutizwa and Brice Kinhou tell us in this report.
The government of DR Congo issues an international arrest warrant for opposition leader Moïse Katumbi, who was hoping to take part in the upcoming December 2018 Congolese general election.