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Alert

Journalist arrested for "spying"

(JED/IFEX) - On 7 June 2004, Gustave Kalenga Kabanda, managing editor of the Kinshasa-based weekly "La Flamme du Congo" ("Congo's Flame") was arrested by judicial police at his home in Kinshasa-Ngaliema. Kalenga Kabanda was taken to the Kinshasa-Gombe Court's detention centre (commonly referred to as the "judicial locker"), where he was detained for 48 hours before being taken to the General Court's detention centre, near Kinshasa-Gombe's Court of First Instance.

According to information obtained by JED, Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, one of the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) four vice-presidents, accused Kalenga Kabanda of spying after he was caught filming renovations being made to Bemba Gombo's home in Gemena, a city in Equateur province, northern DRC. Gemena is also home to the former rebel group The Congolese Liberation Movement (Mouvement pour la libération du Congo, MLC). The journalist was the head of a team of seven other journalists who were covering, between 29 May and 5 June, the return of Senator Jeannot Bemba Saolona to his hometown after a five year absence. Bemba Saolona is Bemba Gombo's father.

During their stay in Gemena, the team filmed various properties belonging to the Bemba Gombo family, including plantations and the worksite of the family's residence in Gemena. They were arrested and taken into custody in Gemena, where they were held for more than four hours by the MLC's intelligence services, and accused of "filming the Bemba Gombo residence without authorization." Cameras, cassettes and other communications equipment were taken from the journalists.

On 1 June, Kalenga Kabanda appeared before Gemena's prosecutor general, who accused the journalist of "residence violation". He was taken to Gemena's central prison, where he spent five days before being granted a conditional release and permission to return to Kinshasa. But on 6 June, at 5:00 a.m. (local time), a colonel and five soldiers arrived at the journalist's home to arrest him once again. They left after Kalenga Kabanda produced the Gemena court's release documents.

On 7 June, Kalenga Kabanda was again arrested, this time by judicial police investigators who claimed, according to witnesses, to be acting on Vice-President Bemba Gombo's orders. Since his arrest in Kinshasa, the journalist has reportedly not been charged.