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Congo-Kinshasa: Editor Held Incommunicado By Intelligence Agency for Past 11 Days
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Reporters sans Frontières (Paris)
PRESS RELEASE
18 March 2008
Posted to the web 18 March 2008
Reporters Without Borders condemns the detention of Nsimba Embete Ponte, the editor of L'Interprète, a small-circulation fortnightly, for no known reason since 7 March. He 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," the press freedom organisation 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 the 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 a.m. on 7 March, eye-witnesses told Journalist in Danger (JED), the Reporters Without Borders partner organisation in Democratic Republic of Congo.
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 29 February about President Joseph Kabila's health.
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Reporters Without Borders defends imprisoned journalists and press freedom throughout the world. It has nine national sections (Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland). It has representatives in Bangkok, London, New York, Tokyo and Washington. And it has more than 120 correspondents worldwide.
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