On Saturday 15 January 2000, at 12:00 p.m and 1:00 p.m. (local time), Kazadi Mbayo Djodjo, director of the Kinshasa weekly “La Palme d’Or” and Gaspard Baïla Linoga, director of sales for the satirical newspaper “Pot-Pourri”, were freed from jail. They spent 68 and 37 days in jail without hearings, respectively, in the external office […]
On Saturday 15 January 2000, at 12:00 p.m and 1:00 p.m. (local time), Kazadi Mbayo Djodjo, director of the Kinshasa weekly “La Palme d’Or” and Gaspard Baïla Linoga, director of sales for the satirical newspaper “Pot-Pourri”, were freed from jail. They spent 68 and 37 days in jail without hearings, respectively, in the external office of the National Information Agency (l’Agence nationale de renseignement, ANR) in Kinshasa/Ngaliema.
Djodjo was arrested on 7 November 1999 at 3:00 a.m. (local time), in his family home in Kinshasa/Bandalungwa, and put in solitary confinement at the ANR office. On 10, 11 and 12 November he was heard in a summary proceeding. Security authorities accused him of “contempt against the Chief of State and inciting revolt.” The newspaper “La Palme d’Or” had published two articles which led to Djodjo’s arrest. The first article was entitled “Inhabitants of Kivu Want To Bring Kabila Before the Courts”, and the second article said that “Kabila will have problems if he keeps pastor Kuthino in prison.” Pastor Kuthino Fernando is the head of an independent Christian church called the “Army of Victory” and the owner of a radio and television station called Life Message Radiotelevision (Radiotélévision Message de vie, RTMV). He was arrested because of a complaint by the Congolese-Islamic community that he had burned a Coran.
Before being freed, the journalist was forced to sign a document in which he apologised for his writings. Moreover, he asserted that he was never physically tortured during his long detention.
With regards to Linoga’s situation, he was arrested on 8 December at around 6:00 a.m. (local time), while he was in the midst of distributing issue 52 of the satirical newspaper “Pot-Pourri” in Kinshasa/Kalamu’s Victory Square.
