Dressed in a colorful African print match, while her face covered with surgical mask, Amida Shatur confidently made her way to the podium.
It was her time to give testify, on corruption charges being levelled against her husband, Vital Kamerhe.
While the state could not establish a direct link between Amida and the USD57 million believed to have been embezzled from government, it wanted to know how the witness had come to acquire large sum of money, traced to her bank account. The state lawyer asked Amida Shatur to explain how she got the USD821 000, which reflected in her bank balance by the end of 2019, including a single day deposit of USD 468 350 made in April.
Amida's reply pinned the money to the wedding gifts she had received after marrying the Chief of Staff of President Felix Tshisekedi.
According to Shatur , among the presents given to her, was cash sum of USD862 000, 33000 euro, and another 10 million congolese franc; she said she directed all the money to her bank account, which explained the bank balance.
Amida also talked about how she had acquired millions of dollars through her real estate ventures, securing USD1.5 million in 2018.
Earlier in the day Shatur's daughter Soraya Mpiana , also took to the stand. She was called to give her side of the story regarding a property registered under her name. The property was previously owned by Vital Kamerhe's co-accused Samih Jammal.
Ms Mpiana claimed that she was unaware of such property under her name and only heard about it through social media upon her return to Kinshasa. She also denied knowing or meeting Samih Jammal.
Another testimony given by Kamehre's cousin Daniel Massaro Nkingi, alleges that it was Nkingi himself who had purchased the property and put Soraya Mpiana's name as the new owner
The trial will continue on 11 June 2020
No comments:
Post a Comment