A former health minister in Democratic Republic of Congo has been freed from prison after serving five years for embezzling funds intended for an Ebola epidemic in the country, his lawyer told AFP on Tuesday.
"Doctor Oly Ilunga was freed from Makala prison yesterday (Monday) after having served his five-year sentence in full," Guy Kabeya said.
Ilunga was in government from late 2016 until July 2019.
A court found Ilunga guilty of embezzling around $400,000 when he was managing one of DRC's most serious Ebola epidemics.
Deadly outbreak
The Ebola outbreak was the second most deadly in the country's history with more than 2,200 deaths between August 2018 and June 2020.
He was sentenced to five years of forced labour in 2020, which normally results into a prison sentence in the Central African country.
Ilunga, who headed a hospital group in Belgium before becoming health minister, has always denied the charges and said his trial was flawed and in violation of the law.
In 2019, Ilunga resigned from his ministerial post after a disagreement with President Felix Tshisekedi, partly concerning a fight with the premier over the Ebola epidemic.
Site of attempted jailbreak
Makala prison where he was incarcerated is the biggest prison in the country, situated in the capital city Kinshasa and was the site of an attempted jailbreak last week, according to authorities.
The attempted prison break left at least 129 people dead and led to women being raped, according to the interior minister.
The Makala prison has capacity for 1,500 inmates, but it is overcrowded and rights organisations regularly complain about the conditions of detention at the jail.
It holds 14,000 to 15,000 prisoners, according to official statistics.
➤ Click here to follow our WhatsApp channel for more stories.
