Protests at the Democratic Republic of Congo protests have entered a third day in Kinshasa amid calls for the release of a journalist who was arrested by the police.
The arrested journalist and correspondent for Jeune Afrique, Stanis Bujakera, was arrested on Friday evening at the NDjili airport in Kinshasa.
He has been accused of spreading rumours and spreading false information.
Police in Kinshasa had fired tear gas to disperse a group of opposition leaders and their followers who were attempting to access the offices of the electoral commission late May.
The Congolese news site, Actualité.cd, reported that Stanis Bujakera was accused of “spreading false rumors and disseminating false information for an article published by Jeune Afrique implicating military intelligence in the assassination of former minister Chérubin Okende.”
Chérubin Okende, a former minister and close ally to presidential candidate Moïse Katumbi, was found dead on July 12 in his car in Kinshasa, with his body ridden with bullets.
The article, which was published late last month but not signed by Stanis Bujakera, was released based on a confidential document said to have come from the DR Congo’s civil intelligence services (ANR).
The government has however denied the note as false.
The journalist was reportedly making preparations to leave for Lubumbashi, the second-largest city in DR Congo, when he was arrested.
The Congo protests continued after Stanis Bujakera, who also works for the Reuter, was detained by the police for three days police before being prosecuted late Monday.
According to Stanis Bujakera’s lawyer, Me Hervé Diakiese, the journalist has been placed “under a provisional arrest warrant” and remains “at the disposal of the prosecution”.
A delegation of journalists’ associations had a meeting with the Minister of Communication, Patrick Muyaya, regarding the freedom of Stanis Bujakera.
The Swiss Embassy voiced their concern over the release of the journalist as protests continued across DR Congo.
The embassy posted on its verified X (formerly Twitter) handle: “The right to information and freedom of the press are the basis of all democracy.”
Another organisation, the Reporters Without Borders (RSF), has demanded for Stanis Bujakera’s release, calling on the Congolese “authorities to stop the harassment of reporters.”
