**Updates IFEX alerts of 12 July and 27 June 2000** (JED/IFEX) – Emile-Aimé Kakese Vinalu, publisher of the newspaper “Le Carrousel”, will appear, on a date that remains unknown, before the Court of Military Order (COM) in Kinshasa. The decision to refer him to this special jurisdiction, that acts as a court of first and […]
**Updates IFEX alerts of 12 July and 27 June 2000**
(JED/IFEX) – Emile-Aimé Kakese Vinalu, publisher of the newspaper “Le Carrousel”, will appear, on a date that remains unknown, before the Court of Military Order (COM) in Kinshasa. The decision to refer him to this special jurisdiction, that acts as a court of first and last resort, was taken on 26 July 2000 by the officer of the public prosecutor, Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Alamba Mungako. Kakese was notified of this decision on Sunday 13 August in his cell in Pavillion 7 in the Penitentiary and Reeducation Centre of Kinshasa (CPRK, formerly the Central Prison of Malaka), where JED staff members met him.
In the justification of his decision, Lieutenant-Colonel Alamba says Kakese is being prosecuted for “having knowingly participated in an exercise to demoralize the army or the nation with the objective of harming national defense.” The public prosecutor also accuses the publisher of “Le Carroussel” of committing acts “of a nature to weaken the loyalty that citizens owe to the State and its institutions.” Kakese is also charged with “knowingly spreading false rumours of a nature to alarm the population, disturb them or incite them against the established powers.”
The acts of which Kakese is accused constitute the offense of treason and are punishable by the Second Book of the Ordinary Penal Code, in effect in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Kakese could face the death penalty.
