A military tribunal in the DR Congo capital Kinshasa has sentenced 15 people to between five and 10 years in prison for “financing terrorism” through the illicit gold trade, their lawyers said Thursday.
Those found guilty were among more than 20 people arrested in Bukavu, the provincial capital of conflict-torn South Kivu, last May.
Soldiers raided gold shops in the town, about 2,000 kilometres (1,200 miles) east of Kinshasa, seizing computers, safes, dollars, and the valuable yellow mineral.
Two of the detainees, including an Indian woman, were released, and the remaining 19 were put on trial, with another five tried in absentia, according to Pascal Amani, spokesman for a lawyers’ collective representing the group.
The trial began on July 25, with the military prosecutor claiming that all of the accused had “masses of untraceable money” from selling gold and precious stones outside the official system.
The tribunal acquitted nine people on Wednesday and sentenced the five fugitives to ten years in prison, according to the lawyer.
The other ten received terms ranging from five to eight years. Amani stated that they would appeal.
