(JED/IFEX) – On 14 June 2000, Richard Nsamba Olangi, publisher of the Kinshasa-based weekly “Le Messager Africain”, was taken to the Kinshasa Penitentiary and Re-education Center (Centre pénitentiaire et de rééducation de Kinshasa, CPRK, formerly known as Makala Central Prison), after a 12 June hearing at the Kinshasa/Gombe public prosecutor’s office. He is charged with […]
(JED/IFEX) – On 14 June 2000, Richard Nsamba Olangi, publisher of the Kinshasa-based weekly “Le Messager Africain”, was taken to the Kinshasa Penitentiary and Re-education Center (Centre pénitentiaire et de rééducation de Kinshasa, CPRK, formerly known as Makala Central Prison), after a 12 June hearing at the Kinshasa/Gombe public prosecutor’s office. He is charged with defamation of the former governor of Kasai western province and current director of the diamond company (MIBA) in the province.
In its April issues (127 and 128), “Le Messager Africain” published articles concerning an audience which President L.D. Kabila had granted in early April to a delegation of traditional chiefs, led by Charles Okoto, who was governor of the Kasai western province at the time. According to the newspaper, Okoto allegedly brought along a number of individuals who were not traditional chiefs to this meeting with the president. Included among the “intruders”, according to the newspaper, was the former governor’s own sister, one Pascaline Opeta.
Since then, “Le Messager Africain” has been the target of a series of summonses and subpoenas, compelling a number of its leaders to go into hiding. Wishing to put an end to this game of hide and seek, on 12 June, Nsamba Olangi decided to turn himself in to the Kinshasa/Gombe public prosecutor’s office.
Nsamba Olangi is the second journalist who is currently detained in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
