(JED/IFEX) – Delly Bonsange, publisher of the Kinshasa-based daily “Alerte Plus”, was arrested on 22 July 2002, in the late afternoon, by officers of the Kinshasa/Matete Appeals Court Prosecutor’s Office. Bonsange was on his way to a restaurant in Kinshasa/Gombe at the time of his arrest. The journalist spent the night in a police cell. […]
(JED/IFEX) – Delly Bonsange, publisher of the Kinshasa-based daily “Alerte Plus”, was arrested on 22 July 2002, in the late afternoon, by officers of the Kinshasa/Matete Appeals Court Prosecutor’s Office. Bonsange was on his way to a restaurant in Kinshasa/Gombe at the time of his arrest.
The journalist spent the night in a police cell. On 23 July, in the early afternoon, Bonsange was interrogated at the Matete Appeals Court Prosecutor’s Office. He was questioned about a news story that appeared in the 11 July edition of his newspaper in which it was reported that “[Security and Public Order Minister] Mwenze Kongolo was reportedly poisoned”. “Alerte Plus” publication director Raymond Kabala was arrested on 19 July in connection with the same story. He reportedly named Bonsange as the author of the incriminating article’s title.
A JED representative met with Kabala in his cell at Kinshasa’s Penitentiary and Reeducation Centre (CPRK, Centre pénitentiaire et de rééducation de Kinshasa, former Makala Central Prison) on 23 July. The journalist told JED’s representative that he had been tortured every night since his arrest. Prison officers wanted him to reveal the source of the information published in his newspaper regarding Kongolo’s health.
JED is surprised by the resurgence of interrogations and arrests of journalists in Kinshasa. The organisation notes that in the course of the last 10 days, seven journalists have been arrested in conjunction with their work. JED also notes that 41 journalists and media workers have been arrested and detained for exercising their professional duties since President Joseph Kabila came to power in January 2001.
