(JED/IFEX) – Freddy Monsa Iyaka Duku, publication director of the Kinshasa-based daily “Le Potentiel”, who was arrested in the early afternoon of 13 September 2004 and placed in the temporary custody of the Kinshasa/Gombe High Court Prosecutor’s Office, was granted a provisional release on 14 September after posting bail. Duku is accused of making “damaging […]
(JED/IFEX) – Freddy Monsa Iyaka Duku, publication director of the Kinshasa-based daily “Le Potentiel”, who was arrested in the early afternoon of 13 September 2004 and placed in the temporary custody of the Kinshasa/Gombe High Court Prosecutor’s Office, was granted a provisional release on 14 September after posting bail. Duku is accused of making “damaging allegations” about Congolese Vice-President Arthur Z’Ahidi Ngoma.
In a 14 September letter to Ngoma, JED noted that “Le Potentiel” had shown complete professionalism in its handling of the case in question and that the vice-president should therefore drop all charges against him and secure his release. JED also expressed its shock that the journalist should be imprisoned for doing his job, particularly as the charges against him were brought by one [Ngoma] who had himself been imprisoned in 1998 under harsh conditions that nearly cost him his life, and who had benefited, at the time, from the full support of the press.
JED applauds Duku’s release and calls on Ngoma to drop all further charges against the newspaper and its publication director.
