A prominent journalist from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) was released from prison late Tuesday after spending six months behind bars, announced a colleague. Stanis Bujakera, aged 33, had been sentenced to six months in prison on Monday for allegedly implicating the country’s military intelligence in the murder of opposition politician Cherubin Okende. Bujakera had been detained in September and held in pre-trial custody.
The article in question, published in Jeune Afrique magazine, was unsigned and based on an alleged confidential memo from a separate intelligence agency. The Congolese authorities have dismissed the memo as fake.
Although Bujakera’s lawyer had earlier stated on Tuesday that he would remain in jail pending an appeal of his sentence by the public prosecutor’s office, Patient Ligodi, head of the online Actualite.cd newspaper, informed AFP that the journalist was now free.
Ligodi said, “The public ministry has withdrawn its appeal. He (Bujakera) is free, he is in the car, I’m taking him home.”
Stanis Bujakera was found guilty by a Kinshasa court of charges including forgery and spreading false rumors, resulting in a six-month prison sentence along with a fine of one million Congolese francs ($400).
Prosecutors had initially sought a 20-year jail term for Bujakera.
As Bujakera had already spent six months in detention, he was due to be released on Tuesday after his employer paid the fine and all court costs.
However, Ligodi mentioned earlier on Tuesday that an order for Bujakera’s release came down around 1800 (1700 GMT), accompanied by an appeal from the public ministry.
Bujakera’s arrest followed the publication of a Jeune Afrique article in late August 2023, suggesting the involvement of Congolese military intelligence in the murder of Okende the previous month.
Okende, a former minister and spokesman for the opposition party Ensemble Pour la Republique (“United for the Republic”), disappeared on July 12 last year. His bullet-riddled body was discovered in his car in Kinshasa the following day.