Media group reports journalist’s release

The editor-in-chief of the Kinshasa-based satirical weekly “Pot Pourri”, Guy Kasongo Kilembwe, was released last Thursday, the media watchdog, Journaliste en Danger (JED), reported on Monday. It said the journalist was freed from solitary confinement at the Agence nationale de renseignments/Direction interieure (ANR/DI), secret services in Kinshasa/Gombe, where he had been transferred the day before (Wednesday). It said Kilembwe was freed after ANR officials forced him to sign a statement saying that he took a solemn oath “to never again write articles that are hostile to the regime in power in Kinshasa”. He was also ordered to present an apology to the government, JED added.

Kilembwe’s release was reportedly ordered by ANR’s administrative director-general, Didier Kazadi Nyembwe, who said that no file on the journalist’s case existed, JED said. No release documents were given to him when he was let out of the cell, it added. JED quoted Kilembwe as saying that he was flogged, whipped with metal strips and threatened with death several times. His family were not allowed to see him. Kilembwe was arrested on 28 February in Kinshasa, allegedly because of “the satirical newspaper’s manifest hatred towards the minister of state responsible for the interior, Gaetan Kakudji, who is from the same province as Kilembwe, Katanga”. JED reported that, despite President Joseph Kabila’s orders to close all illegal detention centres, the ANR facility was still operational.