A presidential candidate in Congo, Jean-Marc Kabund has been sentenced to seven years in jail for insulting the sitting president, Felix Tshisekedi.

Kabund who was a former vice president and a one-time close associate of the head of state was convicted by a high court on 12 charges including spreading false rumours and offending the country’s institutions on Wednesday.

Last year, reports showed that the two had fallen out and Kabund had formed his own party called Alliance for Change. However since his arrest in August 2022, he had been kept in the Kinshasa’s main prison.

“The court sentenced him to four months each for the first nine offences and 16 months each for the last three. The most serious offences were ‘spreading false rumours’ and ‘contempt for head of state and parliament’, This is an extremely harsh decision, especially as there is no appeal,” Kabund’s lawyer, Kadi Diko told reporters.

Kabund who wasn’t in court at the sentencing had remarked during a a hearing that:

“I have asked the people to do everything in their power to ensure that Mr Tshisekedi is excluded from the next elections, because I believe that the country is in great danger under his leadership,” he told the court in August.

The election is expected to take place later in the year.