Namuroise Julienne Mpemba prosecuted for trafficking Congolese children in the context of adoption to Belgium soon to be judged: “Children and adoptive and biological parents are destroyed in this case”

Julienne Mpemba, a Belgian-Congolese from Namur, is suspected of fraud in the adoption of Congolese children. Belgian families find themselves with a child who could have been stolen. Seven years after the opening of the case, it will be pleaded.
 

It is an old case but above all very emotionally heavy which will soon be pleaded before the Namur criminal court. Julienne Mpemba, a Belgian-Congolese from Namur, has been suspected since 2017 of adoption fraud, human trafficking, kidnapping of minors, hostage taking, fraud, corruption, forgery and use of forgeries.

Let's go back a few years. In 2017, the federal prosecutor's office discovered that the children, who arrived in Belgium in 2014, had been kidnapped. Other identities and dates of birth were allegedly given to them even though they were not intended for adoption.

At the time, reporters from the newspaper “Het Laatste Nieuws” even went looking for the biological parents. They had found them. They explained that they had the opportunity to send their children to camp through a youth organization. But the little ones never came back. These parents had no money to pay a lawyer. They had also been abandoned by the local authorities.

The Tumaini Center

Obviously, the FPS Foreign Affairs took a close interest in this terrible issue after the press revelations. “Julienne Mpemba created the “Tumaini” center, an orphanage in 2012, in Kinshasa,” recalls Me Fery, lawyer for a Hut family who adopted a 4-year-old Congolese girl in 2014.

Note that at the time, Julienne was a lawyer for the French Community (Editor's note: current Wallonia Brussels Federation). In an interview she gave us in 2021, the accused indicated that “she had agreed with the Community to collaborate on adoption matters. Adoptions therefore took place from Congo to Belgium.”

Suspicions from Belgian parents

But following numerous suspicions, such as the testimony of a manager of a non-profit organization in Kinshasa but also the complaint of Belgian adoptive parents on the behavior of this director, who had proposed to them in particular to exchange a child as a simple object -saying the patient they had taken in, the SPF had decided to file a complaint against Julienne and her association. Note that at the same time, Congolese families have also become civil parties. DNA tests had actually confirmed that children arriving in Belgium had parents in Congo who were waiting for them.

In this case, seven officials from the Wallonia-Brussels Federation were also initially suspected of being involved. Searches had been carried out at the FWB. They were accused of having turned a blind eye to fraudulent manipulation of dates of birth and photos of children. These officials were also prosecuted for failure to assist a person in danger. However, they were not referred to the criminal court. They all benefited from a dismissal of the case.

What about the identity of the child?

In this trial, many families are waiting to know the truth. “In this case, children but also adoptive and biological parents are destroyed. The judge will actually decide, on a criminal level, whether there was kidnapping and sequestration or not on the part of Madame Mpemba,” says Me Fery, lawyer for one of the Hut families who adopted a 4-year-old girl. in 2014.

This kid, now 14 years old, could indeed see her life turned upside down again. After the correctional court, it will probably be the youth court which will have to decide on the future and the identity of the teenager: “Her adoption could then be canceled and she could no longer have Belgian nationality”, warns Mr. Fery . His parents could, on an administrative level of course, no longer be his legal guardians if the kidnapping is recognized. As a reminder, Julienne Mpemba denies all accusations.