(JED/IFEX) – Jean Marie Kanku, publisher of the Kinshasa-based newspaper “L’Alerte”, has been detained in a cell at the Kinshasa/Gombe High Court Prosecutor’s Office since 12 July 2005. The journalist was taken there after spending the night of 11 July in a cell at the Kinshasa/Kalamu High Court Prosecutor’s Office, where judicial inspectors had lured […]
(JED/IFEX) – Jean Marie Kanku, publisher of the Kinshasa-based newspaper “L’Alerte”, has been detained in a cell at the Kinshasa/Gombe High Court Prosecutor’s Office since 12 July 2005. The journalist was taken there after spending the night of 11 July in a cell at the Kinshasa/Kalamu High Court Prosecutor’s Office, where judicial inspectors had lured him into a trap.
JED was able to meet with Kanku in his cell in the early afternoon of 13 July. He said he had been questioned by a judicial inspector named Kapinga, who is reportedly close to the family of Catherine Nzuzi wa Mbombo, the minister of solidarity and humanitarian affairs. The interrogation focused on an article in the 8 July issue of “L’Alerte”, entitled, “For a letter to the head of state: Nzuzi wa Mbombo, Kamanda and R. Tshibanda seek refuge in the presidential circle”. This article was signed by a certain Parfait Luka.
On 14 July, JED was able to contact a judicial police inspector from the Kinshasa/Kalamu High Court Prosecutor’s Office who confirmed that “it is Mrs. Nzuzi wa Mbombo who filed a complaint against the journalist because she felt sullied by his unproven allegations against her.”
In the article, the newspaper noted that: “The evaluation of her activity demonstrates that Nzuzi wa Mbombo never justified the sum of US$1 million released by the government to renovate the Kadutu market [in the town of Bukavu, capital of South Kivu province, in the east of the country] and the aid to the economic operators (. . . ). Out of US$1 million delivered to the minister, only US$700 000 made it into the hands of the economic operators of South Kivu.”
According to the article, the report condemning the minister was made public by an organisation called the Norwegian Human Rights Group. The journalist refused to reveal the identity of the person who gave him the report.
