In the correspondence of Mr. Firmin Mvonde Mambu, Attorney General at the Court of Cassation, the latter orders the Kinshasa-Matete public prosecutor's office to initiate legal proceedings against the prelate.


"I hereby order you to open a judicial file against the aforementioned prelate who deliberately violates consciences and seems to find pleasure in spreading false rumors and other incitements for the population to revolt against established institutions and in plots against human lives," reads the letter addressed to the prosecutor of the Matete Office.


Firmin Mvonde Mambu expects results from the prosecutor in charge of this case. Should the latter fail to act, Firmin Mvonde threatens, in the same correspondence, to prosecute him for "complicity and denial of justice" in the event of inaction against Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo.


The prosecutor claims to have invited Cardinal Ambongo to his office on April 22nd, but the latter "declined the invitation." In his letter, the prosecutor has described the behavior of Monsignor Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya's successor as the head of the Archdiocese of Kinshasa as "seditious".


The cardinal surprised the Congolese public opinion by adopting an argumentation close to the regime of Paul Kagame regarding the Congolese government's support for the Rwandan FDLR rebels. His statements, which shook the political microcosm in DRC, were eventually denied by Fides Agency.


This agency clarified on Monday, April 22, 2024, the statements made by Cardinal Ambongo spoken in Italian. "Inaccuracies (now corrected) had occurred when translating the original version of the interview (which was in Italian) into other languages," wrote Fides Agency.


In some cases, this religious media outlet notes, "the Cardinal was believed to have intended to accuse the civil authorities of his country by echoing 'de facto' theses and arguments used against them by leaders of other nations currently in conflict with the Democratic Republic of the Congo."


For this agency, the Cardinal did not make the following statement: "the government has distributed additional weapons to various armed groups such as the Wazalendo and some members of the Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR)." This sentence stirred a lot of ink and tongues in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.


The departure of the Metropolitan Archbishop of Kinshasa for Rome had already encountered snags at the N'djili International Airport where the prelate reportedly did not have access to the VIP lounge of this airport facility. Upon his return from Rome, Fridolin Ambongo did not pass through this VIP lounge anymore.


Dido Nsapu