Unidentified armed individuals arrested Kazadi, director of the Kinshasa-based political weekly La Palme d’Or, at his residence and drove him to the Kinshasa-Bandalungwa offices of the National Information Agency, a branch of the state security apparatus, where he was kept in solitary confinement.
In a summary hearing held from November 10 to 12, the authorities accused Kazadi of “contempt against the chief of state and inciting revolt,” although he was apparently never charged. According to local journalists, the arrest was in connection with a November 4 article in La Palme d’Or alleging that residents of Kivu Province, which borders Rwanda, planned a citizens’ arrest of President Kabila for “selling their province to Rwandans and Burundians.”
Kazadi was released on January 15. ANR agents reportedly forced the journalist to sign a document in which he promised never again to publish any article critical of the Kabila government.