Semlex to face criminal trial in Belgium over Congo passport scandal

Semlex, the Belgian company that produced biometric passports for the Democratic Republic of Congo, will stand trial in Brussels. Fourteen defendants in the Semlex case have been referred to the criminal court to face charges of bribery, money laundering and tax fraud.

“We paid $185 for our passports, before learning from the press that some of that money had allegedly been used to bribe members of the political elite,” said Fred Bauma, a DRC citizen acting as a civil claimant. “We have a right to know where our money went. This trial will finally shed light on the matter.”

The case centers on allegations that for each passport sold at US$185, about $60 was siphoned to a Dubai-registered firm called LRPS, which is allegedly linked to a “close associate” of former DRC President Joseph Kabila. Investigators claim nearly $60 million was diverted.

Civil parties include 51 Congolese citizens and international rights groups such as FIDH, Transparency International and LDH. They argue the scheme has financially deprived the Congolese people and hope the trial delivers accountability after nine years of investigation.

Authorities traced bank transfers, reviewed emails and conducted inquiries in Congo and the UAE in what is one of Belgium’s most thorough corruption probes. It is the first time a Belgian company has been sent to trial at home for alleged foreign bribery, setting a precedent for corporate accountability abroad.

Semlex produced DRC biometric passports between 2015 and 2025. The price of biometric passports in Congo soared under Semlex to $185, a price Reuters says was among the most expensive. It was reduced to $99 in 2019.

Opposition politicians called for an investigation into “the scandal of the passports” in August 2024, following the Reuters report, which alleged that money paid by citizens for new passports was sent overseas. Semlex struck the passport deal with former President Joseph Kabila and close associates in 2014–2015, according to Reuters. During talks reportedly held in Dubai and Kinshasa, the price per passport jumped from about $21.50 to $185.

German biometrics firm Dermalog was awarded a $48 million contract in 2022 to produce new passports with an RFID chip storing biometric data and other security features. The price of an ordinary biometric passport dropped to $75.

Semlex has faced scrutiny of its political networks across Africa. Investigative journalists explored the Belgian firm’s dealings in Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya, Madagascar and the DRC. In September 2020, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) said it was sifting through 160,000 leaked internal documents and launched the first in a series of reports dubbed “Biometric Bribery: Inside Semlex’s Global Playbook.”

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the League for Human Rights (Belgium – Ligue des droits humains) and UNIS (Pan-African Anti-Corruption Network) filed a civil party petition against Semlex in Belgium on 8 May 2020. Investigations had been conducted since 2017. Fifty-one Congolese victims also filed as civil parties as part of the “Congo is not for sale” campaign.

Article Topics

Africa  |  biometric passport  |  Democratic Republic of Congo  |  digital ID  |  identity document  |  Semlex