(JED/IFEX) – In an 8 December 1999 letter to the state minister responsible for internal affairs, Gaëtan Kakudji, JED draw his attention to the arrest and detention without trial of Kazadi Mbayo Djodjo, director of the weekly newspaper “La Palme d’Or”. The journalist has been detained since 7 November. In their letter, JED ask Kakudji […]
(JED/IFEX) – In an 8 December 1999 letter to the state minister responsible for internal affairs, Gaëtan Kakudji, JED draw his attention to the arrest and detention without trial of Kazadi Mbayo Djodjo, director of the weekly newspaper “La Palme d’Or”. The journalist has been detained since 7 November.
In their letter, JED ask Kakudji “to do everything he can to ensure that the journalist is given the opportunity to be heard by a judge, that he benefit from the assistance of a lawyer, and that he be presumed innocent until his guilt can be eventually decided upon by the competent jurisdiction.”
Without entering into too much detail on the case, JED told the state minister “that such a long period in preventive detention cannot be justified under any circumstances. Neither international treaties (ratified by the Democratic Republic of Congo) nor Congolese law allow for such a prolonged detention.”
Kazadi Mbayo Djodjo was arrested at his residence on 7 November at 3:00 a.m. (local time), by unidentified armed men. He was immediately placed in solitary confinement at the external office of the National Information Agency (Agence nationale de renseignements, ANR) in Kinshasa/Ngaliema, where he has allegedly been detained to this day. No official explanation has ever been given for this arrest, and to JED’s knowledge, no one, not even his family members, has been able to visit him in prison. According to JED, the food which is brought by his family is left with guards.
