(JED/IFEX) – On 5 January 2005, Déo Mulima Kampuku, a journalist with the Kinshasa-based daily “La Référence Plus”, was sentenced in absentia to four years in prison with no parole and ordered to pay 63,260 FC (approx. US$145) in damages and legal fees for defaming Guillaume Bolenga, president of the Cobil Oil (formerly Mobil Oil) […]
(JED/IFEX) – On 5 January 2005, Déo Mulima Kampuku, a journalist with the Kinshasa-based daily “La Référence Plus”, was sentenced in absentia to four years in prison with no parole and ordered to pay 63,260 FC (approx. US$145) in damages and legal fees for defaming Guillaume Bolenga, president of the Cobil Oil (formerly Mobil Oil) company’s management committee. “La Référence Plus” was also found liable and ordered to pay a symbolic fine of 100 FC (less than one US dollar) in damages.
On 23 December 2004, Mulima and “La Référence Plus” management were summoned to appear at a 27 December Kinshasa/Pont Kasa-Vubu court hearing. Neither the journalist nor the paper’s representatives appeared before the court on that day.
Mulima was found guilty of harming Bolenga’s reputation. In its 21 December edition (issue 3258), “La Référence Plus” carried an article entitled, “The Sale of COBIL is Imminent”. In the article, Mulima remarked that Bolenga held several positions simultaneously, which could create a conflict of interest. He noted that Bolenga was former energy minister Kalema Losona’s chief of staff as well as president of Cobil Oil’s management committee. (President Joseph Kabila suspended Losona on 25 November after a parliamentary enquiry’s report accused him of misappropriating funds.)
In the same article, Mulima questioned whether “the DRC had become a banana republic or [something out of the] Far West, where honest men are ostracised while selfish people and other adventurers are praised or even glorified for their acts of embezzlement, waste and misappropriation of funds.” The journalist also said, “It is regrettable that, just like vultures, certain Congolese citizens help themselves to public property (. . .). But the most flagrant case today is certainly that of Cobil Oil.”
Lawyers for Mulima and “La Référence Plus” appealed the court decision. The next hearing is scheduled for 26 January. Meanwhile, Mulima has gone into hiding.
