(JED/IFEX) – On Sunday 18 March 2001, JED investigators were barred from entering the Kinshasa Penitentiary and Reeducation Centre (Centre pénitentiaire et de rééducation de Kinshasa, CPRK, former Makala Central Prison). JED representatives were not even able to contact the CPRK’s social services branch, which is well covered by armed men. The JED representatives did […]
(JED/IFEX) – On Sunday 18 March 2001, JED investigators were barred from entering the Kinshasa Penitentiary and Reeducation Centre (Centre pénitentiaire et de rééducation de Kinshasa, CPRK, former Makala Central Prison). JED representatives were not even able to contact the CPRK’s social services branch, which is well covered by armed men.
The JED representatives did notice that food brought by prisoners’ families was given to the inmates through the CPRK’s front gate. Family members also had the possibility of having private conversations with prisoners at the front gate.
According to information received by JED, security at the CPRK has been further tightened because persons implicated in the assassination of former president Laurent-Désiré Kabila are being held there.
The purpose of the JED representatives’ visit to the CPRK was to verify if Guy Kasongo Kilembwe, editor-in-chief of the satirical weekly “Pot Pourri”, had been transferred there. According to unconfirmed reports, the journalist was allegedly transferred to the CPRK after spending long days in arbitrary detention at the National Information Agency (Agence nationale de renseignements, ANR, secret services).
