According to the Peace Court of Masimanimba, the public prosecutor has requested 5 years of imprisonment, the heaviest sentence for offenses of fraud and breach of trust (the loss of two electronic voting devices). The Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI), as the civil party, has demanded fines of around 500,000 US dollars for the damages suffered.

However, the three defendants, namely: the Antenna head, the logistician, and the computer scientist, have pleaded "not guilty" in turn. They have requested their full acquittal on the grounds that the Public Ministry has failed to establish their guilt due to doubt. "The defendants have pleaded not guilty and have requested their outright acquittal because the organ of the law sent a premature file to the court. It had not gathered all the necessary evidence.

We clung to several principles of law, notably, he was targeting people who, according to him, would have facilitated the fraud, but, we asked ourselves the question: where were the fraudsters? The civil party's lawyers said that they had facilitated fraud for candidates who are still hidden in the shadows. We asked the question, what is that shadow? Neither the civil party nor the Public Ministry has demonstrated that they facilitated fraud in favor of this or that other candidate," stated Me Olivier Mbangala, one of the defense lawyers.

Regarding the breach of trust, the lawyer maintains that the accusation does not hold up, especially since the CENI offices were vandalized in that part of the country and the lost materials cannot be attributed to their clients.

Gisèle Mbuyi