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Three policemen suspected of killing journalist

[DRC] Murder suspects of Congolese journalist presented on Monday to reporters in Kinshasa, the DRC capital.
French: L'homme habille en vert est le policier suspecte d' avoir ouvert le feu sur le journaliste.  En premier plan, l'homme en possession du te Eddy Isango/IRIN
Murder suspects of Congolese journalist presented on Monday to reporters in Kinshasa, the DRC capital.
The Police Department of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) presented at a news conference in the capital, Kinshasa, on Monday three of its officers who are suspected of killing a journalist and his wife in November. "We were able to catch the suspects because they took the journalist's phone," Katsuva Wa Katsuvira, the inspector general of police, said at the National Police Headquarters. The murder suspects were presented along with two accomplices. Katsuva said that no motive for the killings had yet been established. The murdered journalist, Franck Kangundu Ngyke, had been the political reporter at the Kinshasa daily newspaper, Le Référence Plus, which has in the past been critical of the government and its institutions. During the news conference, the suspected ringleader, 2nd-Lt Mungande Kimbao Joel, denied having any part in the murders and said he only confessed to the crime under torture. However, a police official at the news conference refuted 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.

This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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