JULY 28, 2005
Posted: August 17, 2005
Jean Pierre Phambu Lutette, La Tolérance
IMPRISONED, LEGAL ACTION
The managing director of the small private newspaper La Tolérance was arrested by judicial police, who accused him of “discrediting” a state prosecutor in an article published in his newspaper. Jean Pierre Phambu Lutette was jailed in a cell at the public prosecutor’s department in the capital, Kinshasa, according to the Kinshasa-based press freedom organization Journaliste en Danger (JED).
JED reported that Lutette was questioned about a June article alleging that judicial police “terrorized” inhabitants of the southwestern city of Matadi. Police inspectors accused Lutette of obstructing their investigation into who wrote the article, which was published under the initials “G.M.B.,” according to JED, one of whose members visited Lutette in detention.
On August 5, Lutette was charged with “insulting a judge” and defaming the state prosecutor, Tshimanga Mukeba. The same day, Lutette was transferred to a Kinshasa prison.