The successor to Chérubin Okende within the "Ensemble for the Republic," Hervé Diakese, has denounced a miscarriage of justice and a deliberate concealment of the truth. "We are outraged by this completely aberrant report. The Congolese justice system has exhibited a denial of justice. The way in which the facts were made known to the public does not align with this conclusion. Firstly, neither the attorney general nor anyone else was present during the last moments of Cherubin Okende. Furthermore, why is the autopsy report not made public? This report would enable us to know the exact causes of death and the precise circumstances," he reacted at our colleagues' of 7sur7.
For the president of the African Association for Human Rights (ASADHO), this conclusion from justice is "the most ridiculous" there can be. "The conclusion made public by the judicial authorities in charge of the Okende case is the most ridiculous one. The fact that they have threatened to arrest anyone who would harshly criticize their conclusion shows that they understand that no one will believe it," wrote Jean-Claude Katende. He reminds us that justice must be rendered in the name of the people. "They [judicial authorities] have forgotten that justice is rendered in the name of the Congolese people. The day the people understand that justice is rendered in their name, some judicial authorities would find themselves banned from accessing their offices, not by the decision of a higher authority, but by the sovereign people," he added on his X account. Even some supporters of the ruling majority have expressed doubts about the conclusion of this investigation, rejecting the hypothesis of suicide of this former spokesperson for the Ensemble party.
Found dead in his vehicle on July 13, 2023, with his body bloodied, deputy Chérubin Okende had committed suicide, according to the thesis provided by the attorney general near the Court of Cassation. An agenda was found during the search executed in the presence of the deceased's wife. In this agenda, which had some pages torn out, was written: "I am at the end of my tether." A sentence that, according to justice, reinforces the thesis of suicide. This conclusion comes in the context of an investigation surrounding the death of this former Minister of Transport and Communications of the government of Prime Minister Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde.
The day before his death, Chérubin Okende had gone to the Constitutional Court accompanied by one of his collaborators to submit a letter. He would be declared unfindable by his relatives on the evening of the same day. And the next day, July 13, he was found dead in his vehicle located on Poids lourd Avenue, in the Gombe district, to the north of the city of Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Dido Nsapu