The Congolese journalist, who was sentenced on Monday March 18 to six months in prison, was finally released this Tuesday March 19 in the evening from Makala prison. However, earlier in the evening, RFI learned that the prosecution had decided to appeal this conviction, which called into question the release of our colleague.
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On Monday, the Kinshasa-Gombé high court found Stanis Bujakera guilty of “counterfeiting”, “forgery”, “propagation of false rumors”, following an article on the death of the opponent Chérubin Okende. The judges sentenced him to six months in prison, a sentence corresponding to the duration of his preventive detention which authorized the journalist to leave his cell today.
But a few hours ago, early in the evening, we learned that the prosecution was appealing this decision. The public prosecutor had requested a much heavier sentence of twenty years in prison. With this appeal from the prosecution, the release of Stanis Bujakera was once again compromised.
But a final twist occurred a little later: the prosecution finally reversed its decision. Our colleague was finally released from Makala prison after paying a fine of one million Congolese francs, approximately 400 euros.
Stanis Bujakera could appeal
This is the end of a long legal drama which began last September with the arrest of Stanis Bujakera in Kinshasa. On that date, the Congolese authorities accused him of being at the origin of an article published in Young Africa which is based on a document incriminating the National Intelligence Agency in the death of opponent Chérubin Okende. Document that military intelligence presents as a forgery made by the journalist himself.
His trial, which opened in October 2023, progressed slowly with a hearing every two to three weeks. Last month, it was Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi himself, just re-elected, who declared in a press conference that Stanis Bujakera was “ maybe victim ” of the ” procrastination » of justice and announced that they had decided to “ put your nose ” in this file. The trial ended two weeks after this statement.
Stanis Bujakera now plans to appeal his conviction, according to his lawyer. Since Monday, reactions to his conviction have multiplied. For the president of the National Press Union of Congo, Jean-Marie Kassamba, this six-month sentence is proof that the file is empty: “ These six months are unfair because Stanis spent six months in prison for acts he did not commit. It is an attempt to bully the press, a way of pushing us into self-censorship. » Same opinion from Journalist in Danger, which regrets this verdict. For its secretary general Tshivis Tshivuadi, it is about “ a political trial ” For ” muzzle the free and independent press “. “Moreover, the prosecutor himself said that this conviction should serve [d’exemple, NDLR] to other journalists,” he adds, considering that these six months in prison, far from the twenty years required by the prosecutor, is a “ disavowal » for the latter and a “ tacit acknowledgment » for the journalist. “ This empty file testifies to the bad faith of the security services and the public prosecutor », concludes Tshivis Tshivuadi.