Three police officers suspected of killing a journalist and his wife in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) earlier this month were presented by the police at a press conference in capital Kinshasa. "We were able to catch the suspects because they took away the journalist's phone," Katsuva Wa Katsuvira, inspector-general of police, said at the National Police Headquarters on Monday, the Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) has reported.
The murdered journalist, Franck Kangundu Ngyke, had been the political reporter at the Kinshasa daily, Le Référence Plus, which has in the past been extremely critical of the government and its institutions. The murder suspects were presented along with two accomplices. Katsuva said that no motive for the killings had yet been established.
The suspected ringleader, 2nd-Lt Mungande Kimbao Joel, denied having played any part in the murders and said he only confessed to the crime under torture. However, a police official at the press meet denied Mungande's torture claim and said evidence of his complicity was based on the numbers he called from Ngyke's cellphone. Mungande's uncle, who was one the two accused accomplices, said his nephew had called him from Ngyke's cellphone a few hours after the journalist was killed.
Franck Kangundu, a veteran political affairs journalist with La Référence Plus, was shot dead shortly after midnight November 3 by unidentified assassins who accosted him at his home in the capital, Kinshasa. The attackers also killed Kangundu's wife, Hélène Mpaka.
The Kinshasa-based press freedom organisation Journaliste en Danger (Journalists in Danger � JED ) reported that several masked men approached Kangundu in front of his house, forced their way in, and shot his wife as she tried to escape. When Kangundu offered them money and his car if they would let him go, the assailants replied that they had been "sent to kill him," according to witnesses interviewed by JED whose names were withheld. The assailants took the journalist's mobile phone before leaving.
Kangundu, 52, had worked for La Référence Plus for more than 10 years and was well-respected by his colleagues. He covered a variety of topics for the newspaper, including the sometimes acrimonious relations between political parties in the DRC's power-sharing government, as well as business and economic issues.
Violent crime has risen dramatically over recent months in Kinshasa, with ever more frequent armed attacks by soldiers or what witnesses have called "men in uniform" .
On November 8, a court freed journalist Jean-Marie Kanku on bail after 12 days of detention. Kanku, publisher of the private newspaper L'Alerte, was arrested on October 28 by the national intelligence agency, known as the ANR. There was no official acknowledgment or explanation for Kanku's arrest, and he had not been publicly charged. Kanku was arrested after L'Alerte printed an interview with Member of Parliament Thierry Bongo, who criticised ANR director Lando Lurhakumbirwa.
Kanku told JED that he had been charged with publishing "false information" in connection with articles attacking Lurhakumbirwa. The national security court released him on bail equivalent to $150, ordered him to check in with the court on Tuesdays and Fridays, and not to leave the country.
Another journalist, Patrice Booto, who was detained in November first week without charge, remains behind bars. On November 11, Booto, publisher of the Kinshasa-based newspaper "Le Journal" and its supplement "Pool Malebo", was charged with spreading "false rumours" by the public prosecutor's office of the State Security Court (CSE) in Kinshasa/Lingwala, where his case was referred.
A magistrate questioned Booto about articles published in the 16- 19 September edition of "Le Journal" and the 15-20 September edition of "Pool Malebo". These articles mentioned a US$30 million donation from the DRC "to Tanzania's education sector at a time when a labour conflict in the DRC pits the government against teachers' unions."
Booto was arrested on November 2 on Colonel Mondjiba Avenue in Kinshasa/Ngaliema by five armed men in civilian clothes who took him to the Kin-Mazière police station in Kinshasa/Gombe, where he was detained for nine days. On November 9, JED was able to meet Booto who said he had been forced "by police officers holding a gun to his head" to reveal the source for his articles. Fearing for his life, he revealed the name of his source, who police officers immediately sought and arrested. Neither judicial police officers nor Booto revealed this individual's identity to JED.
Both of Booto's publications were suspended for three months in September by the independent but officially sanctioned High Authority on Media (HAM), after they published the articles. Some local sources suspected that the HAM's action was the product of political pressure.
