**Updates IFEX alerts of 16 February, 20, 19, 18, 11 and 7 January 2000** (JED/IFEX) – On Wednesday 23 February 2000 at midday, a member of JED’s staff met with Freddy Loseke Lisumbu la Yayenga, publisher of the Kinshasa newspaper “La Libre Afrique”, in his cell at the headquarters of the Seventh Military Region of […]
**Updates IFEX alerts of 16 February, 20, 19, 18, 11 and 7 January 2000**
(JED/IFEX) – On Wednesday 23 February 2000 at midday, a member of JED’s staff met with Freddy Loseke Lisumbu la Yayenga, publisher of the Kinshasa newspaper “La Libre Afrique”, in his cell at the headquarters of the Seventh Military Region of the Congolese Armed Forces (Forces armées congolaises, FAC), located at the Kokolo military base in Kinshasa/Bandalungwa. JED noted that Loseke had moved to a different cell.
His body bearing the marks of the whippings inflicted by his jailers, Loseke stated that he had difficulty finding something to eat “since visits from his wife and family were strictly forbidden.”
On Wednesday 23 February, an agent from the Clerk’s Office of the Court of Military Order (Cour d’ordre militaire, COM) told JED that the investigation of Loseke’s case is set to resume shortly. The official explained that this was likely to take place because Judge Alamba, “who was handling Loseke’s case, had just been dismissed from his duties as presiding judge of the COM, further to the issuing of a presidential decree. However, he was appointed military prosecutor of the COM.”
