DR Congo jails ex-anti-graft chief for life over rebellion

BUKAVU, DR Congo: The former anti-corruption chief fighting fraud in DR Congo´s lucrative eastern mines has been jailed for life by a military court on charges of rebellion and murder, judicial sources told AFP.

Abbas Kayonga was arrested by UN peacekeepers in the eastern city of Bukavu on November 5 just days after his dismissal for "grave negligence". Efforts by Congolese troops to arrest him had sparked deadly clashes with his bodyguards, which left six people dead before the UN troops intervened.

He appeared at military court in Bukavu a day later alongside around 30 others, on charges of rebellion. In a verdict reached Tuesday, the court sentenced him and 13 others to death, with the military prosecutor ordering them transferred to Kinshasa and ruling out any chance of appeal. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, life sentences are no longer carried out with the sentence automatically commuted to life. Another 13 were jailed for between five and 20 years.