(JED/IFEX) – On Tuesday 12 September 2000, Franck Baku Fuita, editor-in-chief of “La Référence Plus” newspaper, appeared before the Peace Court (Tribunal de paix) of Kinshasa/Ngaliema, which sat in the council chamber of the Penitentiary and Reeducation Centre of Kinshasa (Centre pénitentiaire et de rééducation de Kinshasa, CPRK), formerly the Makala Central Prison. The court […]
(JED/IFEX) – On Tuesday 12 September 2000, Franck Baku Fuita, editor-in-chief of “La Référence Plus” newspaper, appeared before the Peace Court (Tribunal de paix) of Kinshasa/Ngaliema, which sat in the council chamber of the Penitentiary and Reeducation Centre of Kinshasa (Centre pénitentiaire et de rééducation de Kinshasa, CPRK), formerly the Makala Central Prison. The court insisted on hearing the journalist’s explanations for the charges, namely “insulting the magistracy” and “violating the press law”.
Baku’s council, Lumeya dhu Maleghi, a lawyer with the Kinshasa Bar, challenged the Kinshasa/Ngaliema Peace Court on the grounds of “territorial incompetence”. He maintained that the “alleged crime” was committed outside the tribunal’s jurisdiction, and that the journalist does not live in Kinshasa/Ngaliema.
Also in his defence speech, dhu Maleghi called for the provisional release of his client, in light of legal provisions concerning the matter. According to the lawyer, “the law accords the prosecution five days, starting with the date of the provisional arrest warrant, to bring the detained to the council chamber.” That time period was greatly exceeded in Baku’s case, because he spent a total of twelve days in detention before his hearing in the council chamber.
For reasons that were not communicated, journalists were barred from attending the hearing.
Furthermore, according to information obtained by JED, the editor of “La Référence Plus”, Félix Kabwizi Baluku, was summoned to appear on Wednesday 13 September before a magistrate with the Public Prosecutor’s Office. The newspaper’s publisher, André Ipakala, was also heard by the public prosecutor a few days earlier with regards to the same case.
Baku was arrested for relating information about a conflict between a former dignitary of the Mobutu regime and his wife, in an article that was published by “La Référence Plus”.
