In a desperate attempt to eliminate the opposition ahead of the December 20, 2023 presidential elections, President Felix Tshisekedi today authorized an illegal search of residences belonging to Ensemble pour la Republique (Together for Change) leader Moise Katumbi and his incarcerated special advisor Salomon Kalonda.
This follows discovery that the Military Intelligence does not have evidence against Salomon who was kidnapped and detained at DEMIAP on May 30, 2023. Salomon was charged with possession of firearm on June 5, 2023 and alleged links to M23 rebels which falsehoods have been debunked with another opposition leader Augustin Matata Mpon revealing that the firearm in question actually belonged to his bodyguard and was lost during a sit in protest on May 25, 2023.
As the information emerged that the government does not have a strong case to implicate Katumbi and Salomon in an illusionary attempt to overthrow President Tshisekedi, military agents swung into action in search evidence.
Multiple sources confirmed the search which were done in absence Katumbi or his lawyers or Salomon and his lawyers.
“The house of @moise_katumbi in Kinshasa is searched while the latter is absent from the capital. “The intelligence agents refused to wait for the lawyers, took a neighbor and searched the house”, a source told journalist Stanis Bujakera.
The house of Katumbi in Kinshasa as well as that of Salomon located on Moero Avenue in Lubumbashi were searched this Thursday, June 8.
All the roads that lead to the residence of Salomon Idi Kalonda were barricaded by army vehicles. No one was authorized to approach the place where the search was carried out.
In a message on twitter, Georges Kapiamba, president of the human rights NGO ACAJ believes that these searches carried out by military intelligence agents in the residences of Katumbi (in Kinshasa) and Salomon (in Lubumbashi) in the absence of the latter and their special representatives, are largely irregular.
Katumbi’s special advisor, Salomon, is falsely accused by Military Intelligence of conspiring with the M23 and Rwanda and illegally possessing a weapon in an attempt to overthrow Tshisekedi.
