A military tribunal in the DR Congo capital Kinshasa has sentenced 15 people to between five and ten years in prison for "financing terrorism" through the illicit gold trade, their lawyers said on Thursday.
Those found guilty were among more than 20 arrested last May in Bukavu, the main town in conflict-hit South Kivu province.
Soldiers had raided gold shops in the town, 2,000 kilometres east of Kinshasa, confiscating computers, safes, dollars and the valuable yellow mineral.
Two of those detained were released, including an Indian woman, and the remaining 1 9 put on trial, with another five tried in absentia, Pascal Amani, spokesperson for a lawyers' collective defending the group, told AFP.
Suspects denied allegations
The trial opened on July 25 with the military prosecutor stating that all of the accused had "masses of untraceable money" from selling gold and precious stones outside the official system.
The defence denied the allegations, noting "our clients did not work to finance terrorism", Amani said.
On Wednesday the tribunal acquitted nine people and sentenced the five on the run to ten years in jail, the lawyer said.
The other 10 received terms of five to eight years.
Appeal
Amani said they would appeal.
A year ago, the government and the United Arab Emirates set up a joint venture called Primera Gold to process gold extracted by artisanal miners in South Kivu and sell it legally and openly.
Experts say the illicit gold and mineral trade in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo has long fuelled the dozens of armed groups that have plagued the region for decades.
Much of the trafficked minerals are thought to transit through neighbouring countries, particularly Rwanda.
'Nothing to do with arrests'
Primera Gold officials told AFP they had nothing to do with the arrests in Bukavu last year.
But they noted that the quantity of gold handled by the venture had since considerably increased.
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