(JED/IFEX) – Freddy Monsa Iyaka Duku, publication director of the Kinshasa-based daily “Le Potentiel”, was arrested in the early afternoon of 13 September 2004 and placed in provisional custody by the Kinshasa/Gombe Court Prosecutor’s Office. Duku is accused of making “damaging allegations” about Congolese Vice-President Arthur Z’Ahidi Ngoma. The journalist, who was contacted by JED […]
(JED/IFEX) – Freddy Monsa Iyaka Duku, publication director of the Kinshasa-based daily “Le Potentiel”, was arrested in the early afternoon of 13 September 2004 and placed in provisional custody by the Kinshasa/Gombe Court Prosecutor’s Office. Duku is accused of making “damaging allegations” about Congolese Vice-President Arthur Z’Ahidi Ngoma.
The journalist, who was contacted by JED in his detention cell on 13 September, says he was questioned by officials about an article that appeared in the 23 August edition of the paper, entitled, “Real estate scandal: Z’Ahidi Ngoma wants to help himself”. The article, which was featured on the paper’s front page, detailed the attempted occupation of a piece of land owned by the textile manufacturer Utexafrica, a subsidiary of the Chinese-Franco-Belgian conglomerate Texaf Inc. Ngoma claims he obtained the land through legal means.
In a press release issued by the vice-president’s office, Ngoma claimed the land “in no way encroaches upon Utexafrica’s land.” However, in an open letter to Ngoma published by “Le Potentiel”, Texaf Vice-President B. de Gerlashe maintained that “[Ngoma’s] real objective was to appropriate part of [Texaf] and its Congolese subsidiaries’ land.”
The attempted occupation came close to escalating into an armed confrontation on 19 August, when Ngoma’s own police guards engaged in a standoff with a group of heavily armed soldiers who had been dispatched to the scene to, according to the article, “remove [Ngoma] from the site”, along with the defence, justice and environment and territorial affairs ministers who were with him. “Le Potentiel” said the vice-president could face charges of misappropriation of property and abuse of power.
During the interrogation, the court officer told Duku that the vice-president felt the “Potentiel” article had exposed him to public contempt. Ngoma is presently in Paris, where he is leading a Congolese delegation to UNESCO.
JED notes that “Le Potential” has shown complete professionalism in this case, by publishing Ngoma’s version of the events as well as Utexafrica’s. The organisation has expressed its shock over the charges faced by the newspaper and its publication director and calls on the Congolese judiciary to establish its independence and immediately release the journalist.
