(JED/IFEX) – Jules-César Mayimbi, correspondent for the Kinshasa-based daily “Forum”, has been held since 5 April 2001 in the central prison of Matadi in Lower-Congo province. According to information obtained by JED, in the 26-27 March edition of “Forum” (issue 1535), the journalist published an article entitled “Imported wheat flour of questionable quality on the […]
(JED/IFEX) – Jules-César Mayimbi, correspondent for the Kinshasa-based daily “Forum”, has been held since 5 April 2001 in the central prison of Matadi in Lower-Congo province.
According to information obtained by JED, in the 26-27 March edition of “Forum” (issue 1535), the journalist published an article entitled “Imported wheat flour of questionable quality on the Lower-Congo market”. In this article, Mayimbi, relying on accounts from travellers coming from the cities of Boma, Moanda and Banana, reveals that a ship unloaded 45,000 tonnes of wheat flour of questionable quality in these cities.
Based on a complaint from the company that sells this flour, the journalist was arrested and taken to the central prison. Mayimbi is being prosecuted for making harmful accusations.
In the same case, Washington Lutumba, correspondent for the daily “Le Potentiel”, has been held in the same prison as Mayimbi since 30 March.
Demands from the two journalists’ lawyers for a release on bail have had no result to date. Sources close to the journalists’ families told JED that the Matadi High Court Public Prosecutor’s Office (le parquet de Grande Instance de Matadi), which is conducting the investigation, would like the journalists to reveal their sources of information.
The arrest and imprisonment of the two journalists in Matadi brings to four the number of journalists deprived of their freedom for practising their profession since Joseph Kabila, son of former president Laurent-Desiré Kabila, came to power in January.
