(JED/IFEX) – Albert Kassa Khamy Mouya, former publication director of the newspaper “Le Lauréat” and currently a journalist with the newspaper “Fair Play”, and Rakys Bokela, publisher of the irregular Kinshasa-based newspaper “Le Collecteur”, have been held since 27 May 2004 at the General Court’s detention centre, near the Kinshasa-Gombe Appeals Court, and the Kinshasa […]
(JED/IFEX) – Albert Kassa Khamy Mouya, former publication director of the newspaper “Le Lauréat” and currently a journalist with the newspaper “Fair Play”, and Rakys Bokela, publisher of the irregular Kinshasa-based newspaper “Le Collecteur”, have been held since 27 May 2004 at the General Court’s detention centre, near the Kinshasa-Gombe Appeals Court, and the Kinshasa Penitentiary and Reeducation Centre (Centre pénitentiaire et de rééducation de Kinshasa, CPRK), formerly the Makala central prison, respectively.
According to Mouya’s lawyer, reached by JED on 2 June, the journalist faces defamation charges brought by a Mrs. Tshitoko, the lawyer of Belgian businessman William Damseaux. Mouya had published an article back in March, while he was still the publication director at “Le Lauréat”, on the ongoing dispute between Damseaux and Lebanese businessman Berge Nanikian, in which he reportedly referred to Damseaux’s lawyer as “trash.” According to Mouya, who was visited by JED in his cell at the detention centre on 1 and 2 June, the article in question was written by Grégoire Agboya, an occasional correspondent for “Le Lauréat”. The judicial authorities maintain, however, that “Agboya” is simply a pseudonym, and that as a result it is Mouya, as publication director at the time, who is responsible for the article.
Journalist Rakys Bokela also faces defamation charges. The charges were brought by the former president of the Congolese Boxing Federation (Fédération congolaise de boxe, FECOBOXE), Aimé Luvumbu, following an article in which Bokela accused the former president of “mismanagement” during his term as president. The article in question, which was written by a certain Laurent Moteki and entitled, “Aimé Luvumbu Should Be in Central Prison”, appeared in the 18 February edition of “Le Collecteur”.
The latest arrests bring the total number of journalists imprisoned in Kinshasa to three in the course of a week.
