His arrest followed a Jeune Afrique article published in late August, which suggested that Congolese military intelligence had killed Okende the month before.Okende, a former minister and spokesman for the opposition party Ensemble Pour la Republique (“United for the Republic”), disappeared on July 12 last year. His bullet-riddled body was found in his car in Kinshasa the following day.The prosecutor’s office announced on February 29 that an autopsy found Okende had committed suicide, an assertion his party called a “refusal of justice”.The trial came amid rising political tensions in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the run-up to last December’s presidential and parliamentary elections.President Felix Tshisekedi won a second five-year term after sweeping the election, which was branded a sham by the opposition.
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