**Updates IFEX alerts of 20, 19, 18, 11 and 7 January 2000** (JED/IFEX) – In a press release issued on the afternoon of Wednesday 16 February 2000, JED asks the president of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), as supreme magistrate, to guarantee journalist Freddy Loseke’s right to life and put an end to the […]
**Updates IFEX alerts of 20, 19, 18, 11 and 7 January 2000**
(JED/IFEX) – In a press release issued on the afternoon of Wednesday 16 February 2000, JED asks the president of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), as supreme magistrate, to guarantee journalist Freddy Loseke’s right to life and put an end to the inhuman treatment allegedly suffered by the journalist in his solitary confinement cell at the Kokolo military base in Kinshasa/Bandalungwa, where he has been detained since Monday 3 January.
Without commenting on the details of the case, JED asks that Loseke be released, or at the very least, that he be transferred from his solitary confinement cell at the military base to a civilian detention centre, and that he be guaranteed, in the shortest time frame possible, a fair and impartial trial.
On Tuesday 15 February, JED received a letter dated 14 February and signed by Freddy Loseke, who expresses concern for his life and asks JED to bring his case to the attention of President Laurent-Désiré Kabila, the minister of human rights, Joseph Kabila, Frej Fenniche, director of the United Nations office for human rights in the DRC, as well as to all DRC press agencies.
After describing the details of his arrest, the inhuman treatment to which he was a victim, his secret release from solitary confinement and his in camera hearing before the Court of Military Order (Cour d’ordre militaire, COM), Loseke states in his letter that: “the threat of (his) execution is further confirmed with each day that passes…I have had no contact with my family since my arrest, not even with my wife. The food she brings for me is eaten by my guards and I am left with meagre rations. Injured by the torture inflicted on me and suffering from a kidney ailment, I do not have access to any medical treatment. I am truly dying (…).”
