(JED/IFEX) – The following is a 7 August 2001 JED press release: Publisher of twice-weekly La Manchette arrested in Kinshasa Kinshasa, 7 August 2001 François Mada Mbulungu, publisher of the twice-weekly La Manchette, published in Kinshasa, has been detained since Monday 6 August 2001 in an underground cell at the Public Prosecutor’s Office’s Criminal Investigation […]
(JED/IFEX) – The following is a 7 August 2001 JED press release:
Publisher of twice-weekly La Manchette arrested in Kinshasa
Kinshasa, 7 August 2001
François Mada Mbulungu, publisher of the twice-weekly La Manchette, published in Kinshasa, has been detained since Monday 6 August 2001 in an underground cell at the Public Prosecutor’s Office’s Criminal Investigation Department’s disciplinary body in Kinshasa/Gombe. The journalist was arrested after responding, that same day, to a summons issued by an inspector from the Public Prosecutor’s Office’s Criminal Investigation Department.
According to information which the victim told Journaliste en danger (JED), which met him in his cell on Tuesday 7 August 2001, François Mada gave an oral statement concerning two articles which were published in July 2001. He is being prosecuted for making “libellous accusations” against Mr. Ashur Satar, president of the Lebanese community in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and a Mr. Kamanda, financial administrator-director of the Administrative Office of Maritime Freight (Office de gestion du fret maritime, OGEFREM, a state company). In the first article, the journalist accused members of the Lebanese community of sabotaging the Congolese economy. In the second article, he denounced mismanagement at the OGEFREM.
