March 19, 2024
After 6 months of trial, the Gombe High Court made public, this Monday, March 18 in the evening, its verdict in the case between the Public Prosecutor and journalist Stanis Bujakera.
The correspondent of Jeune Afrique and deputy publishing director of the online media « Actualités.cd » is sentenced to 6 months in prison and the payment of a fine of 1 million Congolese francs (400 US dollars). The judges declared all six offenses against Stanis Bujakera established, in particular, the fabrication of false documents, the falsification of official documents and the propagation of false rumors. All of these accusations were never proven throughout that trial. Reason why his lawyers had pleaded for his acquittal.
Having already spent 6 months in detention, Stanis Bujakera will nevertheless have to leave the prison after all the exit formalities.
Journalist in Danger (JED) expresses his disappointment at that unjust conviction. For JED, the large gap between the 20 years in prison and a $7,500 fine requested by the Prosecutor and the 6 months in prison and a $400 fine imposed by the Court clearly demonstrates that the prosecution’s file was empty and based solely on a bad faith of the Public Prosecutor and its desire to “punish Bujakera” and serve as lessons to other journalists, as he himself declared during a public hearing.
The circumstances of the arrest of Stanis Bujakera on September 8, 2023 at Ndjili airport; his long detention in Makala Central Prison, and his conviction under pressure from the international community which has never ceased to demand his release, constitute serious attacks on freedom of the press and expression which now place the DRCONGO among the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists.
