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KINSHASA (Reuters) – Congolese opposition leader Moise Katumbi plans to return home this week after two years in exile to submit his candidacy for December's presidential election, his political platform said on Monday.
FILE PHOTO: Moses Katumbi, governor of Democratic Republic of Congo's mineral-rich Katanga province, arrives for a two-day mineral conference in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo March 24, 2014. REUTERS / Kenny Katombe / File Photo [19659003] But both Katumbi and another prominent opposition politician, Jean-Pierre Bemba, could be barred from contesting the election, possibly easing the way for sitting President Joseph Kabila or his chosen successor.
Katumbi, a millionaire businessman and governor of the copper-mining Katanga region, left Democratic Republic of Congo in May 2016, accused by the government of plotting against Kabila.
He was sentenced to three years in prison the following month for real estate fraud. Katumbi denies the charges and says they are aimed at preventing him from contesting the election.
"The General Secretariat of Together for Change informs the public … of the return to the country this Friday, August 3 … in the city of Lubumbashi of its president, his Excellency Moise Katumbi," Together spokesman Jean Bertrand Ewanga said in a statement.
Katumbi also wrote to Congo's civilian aviation authority on Monday to request permission to land in Lubumbashi.
Government spokesman Lambert Mende said the question of whether Katumbi's plane would be allowed to go beyond his competency. Once on Congolese soil, he said, Katumbi would be "at the disposal of the prosecutor. Now, what will the prosecutor do with him? That I do not know. "
Kabila, who took power in 2001 after his father's murder, voting.
However, he has refused to make a written statement to the contrary and has made a number of recommendations. The deadline to submit candidacies is Aug. 8.
Security forces have killed dozen of protesters since Kabila overstayed the expiry of December 2016, saying that elections could not be organized in time.
Bemba, to form vice president and militia leader, plans to return to Congo on Wednesday to file his own candidacy.
Kabila's ruling coalition claims that it was acquitted on appeal by the International Criminal Court of Justice in the United States.
Reporting By Amedee Mwarabu; Additional reporting by Fiston Mahamba; Writing by Aaron Ross; Editing by Matthew Bigg Mpoke
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