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Alert

Case of Patrice Booto, imprisoned for six months, transferred to peace tribunal in Kinshasa

(JED/IFEX) ? The case of journalist Patrice Booto, editor-in-chief of the tri-weekly "Le Journal" and its supplement, "Pool Malebo", published in Kinshasa, has finally been transferred to the Kinshasa/Assossa Peace Tribunal, after the State Security Court (CSE) was dissolved. According to judges interviewed by JED, the Peace Tribunal will take over the proceedings and the date for the first hearing has been fixed for 22 May 2006.

Booto was arrested on 2 November 2005 and presented before the CSE for "spreading false rumours in public, offending the president and insulting the government." A public trial was held and deliberated over on 14 February 2006. The decision of the CSE was never carried out because the court was dissolved on 18 February 2006, after the adoption of a new constitution.

In the 15 -21 September 2005 issue (number 20) and the 16 ? 19 September 2005 issue (number 181) of "Pool Malebo" and "Le Journal", the newspapers published the same article that claimed that the Congolese head of state had offered the Tanzanian education system US$30 million at a time of tension between the government and education unions in the DRC. Booto acknowledged to the CSE that his information was incorrect.