DRC: Journalist hounded over absurd libel case fine

The publisher of the bimonthly entitled Rafiki (which means “Friend” in Swahili), Christian Kahindo Muke has been in hiding ever since five men armed with AK47 rifles raided his home on the evening of 29 August in an attempt to arrest him for non-payment of his 1,500 US dollars fine.

Quite a muscular reaction when one considers that judicial authorities never notified Muke about the fine in the first place and that his lawyer only learned of it when he went to the court to enquire about the reason for the heavy-handed raid on his client’s home.

“Such measures highlight the utter iniquity of the Butembo court’s rulings,” RSF said. “How can you arrest someone for non-payment of a fine of which he was never notified? The Congolese judicial system’s limited resources are no excuse. Christian Muke has clearly been subjected to political harassment. We call on the court to quash his conviction and drop all proceedings against this journalist.”

Muke was convicted over a December 2015 article about the links between Hamza Baghuma Kasereka, a Muslim cleric, and the Allied Democratic Forces, a Ugandan rebel group responsible for many massacres in and around Beni, a city 50 km north of Butembo.

The absurdity of the conviction has been highlighted by the fact that the Nord-Kivu military operational court in Beni is currently trying Kasereka along with many ADF members, who have testified that Kasereka recruited them.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is ranked 152nd out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2016 World Press Freedom Index.