(JED/IFEX) – Raymond Kabala, managing editor of the Kinshasa-based newspaper “Alerte Plus”, remains imprisoned at Kinshasa’s Penitentiary and Reeducation Centre (Centre pénitentiaire et de rééducation de Kinshasa, CPRK), even though he finished serving his seven-month sentence on 19 February 2003. Kabala was arrested on 19 July 2002 and taken to the CPRK. A Kinshasa/N’Djili court […]
(JED/IFEX) – Raymond Kabala, managing editor of the Kinshasa-based newspaper “Alerte Plus”, remains imprisoned at Kinshasa’s Penitentiary and Reeducation Centre (Centre pénitentiaire et de rééducation de Kinshasa, CPRK), even though he finished serving his seven-month sentence on 19 February 2003.
Kabala was arrested on 19 July 2002 and taken to the CPRK. A Kinshasa/N’Djili court first sentenced him to 12 months’ imprisonment with no parole for making “harmful accusations” against former security and public order minister Mwenze Kongolo. The Kinshasa/N’Djili High Court later reduced his sentence to seven months’ imprisonment with no parole.
Kabala completed his sentence on 19 February. Yet he remains imprisoned, despite the fact that the law does not include any provisions allowing for the extension of his sentence. In a 17 February letter to the state prosecutor, JED recalled that Kabala would complete his sentence within 48 hours and asked that he personally ensure that the journalist’s terrible ordeal not be prolonged illegally.
