(JED/IFEX) – Franck Baku Fuita and Franck Ngyke, respectively editor-in-chief and head of the political column for the Kinshasa weekly “La Référence Plus”, were arrested on Friday 1 and Sunday 3 September 2000 respectively. Baku was arrested and locked up, on the order of the public prosecutor (Procureur général de la République, PGR), in the […]
(JED/IFEX) – Franck Baku Fuita and Franck Ngyke, respectively editor-in-chief and head of the political column for the Kinshasa weekly “La Référence Plus”, were arrested on Friday 1 and Sunday 3 September 2000 respectively.
Baku was arrested and locked up, on the order of the public prosecutor (Procureur général de la République, PGR), in the inspection cell of the judicial police before being taken to the cells of the High Court (Tribunal de grande instance), in the basement of the minister of justice’s office. The public prosecutor, Luhonge Kibinda Ngoie, who had invited Baku by telephone to meet him in his office in Kinshasa/Gombe, charges the journalist with having called the Congolese justice system “iniquitous” in an article in the 31 August issue (number 1958) of “La Référence Plus”. The article dealt with the divorce trial of a dignitary in the Mobutu regime and a woman employed by the Military Observation Mission of the United Nations in the Congo (Mission militaire d’observation des nations unies au Congo, MONUC). The journalist met with the husband who spoke harshly of the Congolese justice system.
While at the cell of the public prosecutor’s office near the High Court, Baku also gave a statement. At this point, he understood that he was being prosecuted for “insulting the magistracy”.
As for the journalist Ngyke, he was arrested at his home at 7 a.m. (local time) by agents in civilian clothes from the National Information Agency (l’Agence nationale de renseignements, ANR). As of Monday 4 September, the reasons for his arrest were not known. The journalist, who is responsible for the political column of the newspaper, is locked up in the cells of the Interior Department of the ANR in Kinshasa/Gombe, along the Congo River.
