Judge in high-profile graft trial dies

A Congolese judge handling the graft case against Vital Kamerhe, a former top aide to President Felix Tshisekedi, has died. Judge Raphael Yanyi died shortly after being admitted to a Kinshasa hospital on Wednesday. ‘The judge was a victim of a heart attack. He was not murdered, he was protected by the police,’ said police spokesperson Sylvano Kasongo. This after residents staged a protest outside the judge's home, claiming they suspected foul play. The East African reports that the day before he died, Yanyi had presided over Kamerhe's $50m graft trial in a makeshift court set up within Kinshasa's central prison compound. As previously reported in Legalbrief Today, Kamerhe is charged alongside two others, Lebanese businessman Jammal Samih and Jeannot Muhima, a senior aide to Tshisekedi. They have all pleaded not guilty to the charges. The trio is accused of siphoning funds intended to finance major works under the plan that Tshisekedi launched after he took office in January last year. The funds were earmarked for the construction of 4 500 pre-fabricated homes.