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JED appeals to military auditor general to intervene in unjust detention of two journalists

(JED/IFEX) - In a 14 March 2007 letter to Brigadier General Joseph Ponde Isambwa, the Kinshasa Military High Court's auditor general, JED expressed urgent concern over the prolonged detention of two journalists: Bosange Mbaka (aka "Che Guevara") of "Mambenga" magazine and Papy Ntembe Moroni, a cameraman for the privately-owned Canal Congo Télévision (CCTV). Both men are being held at Kinshasa's Central Penitentiary (Centre Pénitentiaire et de Rééducation de Kinshasa, CPRK).

Mbaka was arrested on 21 November 2006 during a fire at the Supreme Court, where he had been covering a hearing for his publication. He was charged by a military court with "theft of military property" for retrieving a mobile phone that was left in the courtroom when the fire broke out, despite the fact that he handed it over of his own accord later the same day to a guard stationed outside the court.

Mbaka was immediately arrested and secretly held for 36 days in a cell at the Special Services Unit of Kinshasa police headquarters (Kin-Mazière). During his time there, he was questioned only once. He was then transferred to the CPRK on 27 December, where he remains in custody.

In the case of Papy Ntembe, he was arrested at his home during the night of 1 December 2006 by police officers who had come to interview his landlord, a Major Yawa, an officer with the Congolese army (Forces Armées de la République démocratique du Congo, FARDC), who, like Ntembe, is a native of Équateur province. Ntembe was taken to Kin-Mazière where he was secretly held for 26 days before being transferred to the CPRK, where he remains in custody. He has been charged by a military court of "public insult" and "inciting hatred and violence".

More disturbingly, JED has learned from Ntembe's lawyers that the two journalists have been held under special confinement measures for more than a week. They may no longer receive visitors, including their lawyers. Curiously, JED has observed that the same measures appear to be applied disproportionately to detainees from Équateur.

JED condemns the long and unjust detention of the two journalists and calls on the military auditor general "to either order the immediate release of the Mbaka and Ntembe or, if he is convinced of the merit of the charges brought against the two men, to grant them an open hearing immediately."