During the closing arguments, delivered the day before, they not only requested compensation of $21 billion, 781 million, 787 thousand, 261 in damages, arguing that Kabila’s actions in support of the Rwandan army and the March 23 Movement (M23) rebels destabilized the country.

In this regard, they detailed that the DRC experienced destruction, loss of state revenue, murders of local residents, and plundering of natural resources, reported Actualité.CD.

The lawyers also presented the former head of state as a supposed Rwandan citizen, adopted by Laurent Desire Kabila, and whose real name is Hyppolite Kanambe, for which they requested a reclassification of the charges.

They explained that the defendant’s nationality affects the classification of the crime of treason against him, as it can only be committed by a Congolese national; therefore, they propose that the crime be reclassified as espionage, as it was committed by a supposed foreign national.

The issue of the change of nationality has sparked outrage among the former president’s supporters, who consider it a political manipulation.

In the meantime his former chief of staff, Nehemie Mwilanya, said that manipulating the identity of a former head of state, the son of a national hero whose biological mother and siblings are still alive, for the sole purpose of political gain is a state crime.

Meanwhile, Kabila’s political party, the People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD), denounced the incident as a setup to eliminate an opposition political figure.

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