The editor of a small-circulation fortnightly is being detained for no known reason since March 7 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Nsimba Embete Ponte, editor of L’Interprète, is being held incommunicado in a building used by the National Intelligence Agency (ANR) in Kinshasa.
“The security forces have no grounds for acting in this way,” Paris-based RSF has said. “Whatever the reasons for Ponte’s arrest, his family has a right to know them, and to be able to visit him. Ponte, for his part, must be able to defend himself, or else ANR will be committing a serious violation of a citizen’s rights and will have to be sanctioned according to the law.”
Ponte was arrested by armed men at the “Pascal” bus stop in Masina, a municipality to the east of Kinshasa, at 7:30 am on March 7, eye-witnesses told Journalist in Danger (JED), the RSF partner organisation in DRC.
After several days without news of him, his wife and two brothers finally located him at an ANR building on the bank of the Congo river, near the prime minister’s office. Police on duty told them they could not see him, and threatened to arrest them if they insisted. No official reason has been given for his arrest or continuing detention. He has not been able to see a lawyer or a doctor, in violation of article 19 of the constitution, which guarantees the rights of detainees.
JED said that, prior to his arrest, Ponte reported being threatened as a result of a series of articles on February 29 about President Joseph Kabila’s health.
