POLITICIANS ARE so rarely punished for stealing public money in the Democratic Republic of Congo that some find the idea absurd. Perhaps that is why Vital Ka-merhe, the president's former chief of staff, laughed aloud as a judge condemned him to 20 years in prison on June 20th. Footage of his trial was live-streamed. His bedraggled appearance, unshaven in a blue prison jacket, elicited little sympathy. He was found guilty of stealing $48m earmarked for building homes for the poor. Few believe his protestations of innocence. (He says the charges were purely political.) Mr Kamerhe (pictured below on the left) is the most senior Congolese politician ever to be put away for graft. "We are happy, the big fish has been sentenced," says an interpreter in Kinshasa, the capital. "It is a good start for the rule of law in Congo."
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