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Congo's ex-president condemned to 30 years hard labor
( 2001-12-29 17:07 ) (7 )

The high court in Congo Friday convicted the country's former president, Pascal Lissouba, of high treason and sentenced him in absentia to 30 years hard labor.

Former prime ministers Claude Antoine da Costa and Jacques Joachim Yhombi Opango, former finance minister Guila Mougounga Nkombo and former oil minister Benoit Koukebene were found guilty of embezzlement and sentenced to 20 years hard labor, court president Placide Lenga announced.

The court dropped the charge of "misappropriation of public funds" against the four.

All five defendants live in exile overseas, and attempts to have them extradited to stand trial in Brazzaville were unsuccessful.

Lissouba and his ex-ministers were accused of making a deal in 1993 with the US oil firm Occidental Petroleum Corporation (Oxy) under which the Congo government received 150 million dollars (170 million euros) for 50 million barrels of crude oil to be produced at an oilfield operated by the French company Elf.

At the time, the world price of oil was 14 dollars per barrel.

Entcha Ebia told AFP on Tuesday that Lissouba, who has lived in exile in London since his overthrow in 1997, is accused of "underselling Congolese oil."

Lissouba defended the deal by saying he needed the funds to pay civil servants and prepare for elections in the central African country.

The charges state that the funds were never paid into the public treasury and that instead part was paid into the Belgian bank account of Lissouba's cabinet director Claudine Munari, and part went into financing the former president's election campaign.