(JED/IFEX) – On 25 May 2004, a Tshikapa court handed down a six-month sentence, including a two-month suspended sentence, to Roger Salomon Lulemba Kiabululu, a correspondent with the Kinshasa-based weekly “L’Eveil”, for defamation against local diamond developer Mwahindji Shamwenze. Kiabululu was also ordered to pay the equivalent of US$526 in damages to Shamwenze. Tshikapa is […]
(JED/IFEX) – On 25 May 2004, a Tshikapa court handed down a six-month sentence, including a two-month suspended sentence, to Roger Salomon Lulemba Kiabululu, a correspondent with the Kinshasa-based weekly “L’Eveil”, for defamation against local diamond developer Mwahindji Shamwenze. Kiabululu was also ordered to pay the equivalent of US$526 in damages to Shamwenze. Tshikapa is the second largest city in West Kasai province, in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s central region.
According to Tshikapa Court President Aimé Mupele Zangisi, who spoke to JED by phone on 25 May, “The journalist was prosecuted on two counts: defamation and ‘libelous accusation’. He was acquitted of the ‘libelous accusation’ charge.”
