DRC’s Moise Katumbi goes home after three years in exile
New DRC President Felix Tshisekedi has pardoned 700 prisoners including three political opponents of his predecessor, Joseph Kabila, since coming to power in January
Kinshasa — Congolese opposition leader Moise Katumbi returned home on Monday from three years in exile, as one of a number of indicted politicians cleared under the administration of new President Felix Tshisekedi. Thousands of supporters came out to welcome Katumbi at the airport in Lubumbashi, the main city in his political heartland in Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC's) Katanga region. “I’m happy to be back home, the truth always triumphs,” he said. Tshisekedi has pardoned 700 prisoners including three political opponents of his predecessor Joseph Kabila since coming to power in January. His supporters have said the moves point to a new era of political openness after years of suppression of opposition figures. Katumbi fled the country in May 2016 in the face of accusations he had hired mercenaries as part of a plot against Kabila’s government. He was then sentenced in absentia to three years in prison for real estate fraud — both charges his supporters said were aimed at pre...
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