Arbitrary arrest and illegal detention of Mr. Mwanza Radel of the UDPS

2023-05-21 19:43:55

COMMUNICATION IRDH/2023/05/030
(Bankruptcy of political parties, on the background of the instrumentalization of Justice)

Lubumbashi, le 19 May 2023. At the request of his family, the IRDH visited Mr. Mwanza Radel, arbitrarily arrested since last Saturday, May 13, and illegally detained at the Kasapa Prison in Lubumbashi, following a political conflict between him and Mr. Augustin Kabuya Mwanabute, Secretary General of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS).

Indeed, during the night of Friday May 12, Mr. Mwanza was brutally apprehended by agents of the Congolese National Police (PNC), in the Bel-Air district, city of Lubumbashi and immediately taken to the Kasapa Prison, in violation judicial procedural rules guaranteed by Article 18 of the Constitution of the Republic stipulating that:

“Anyone arrested must be immediately informed of the reasons for their arrest and of any charges brought against them, in the language they understand.
She must be immediately informed of her rights.
The person in custody has the right to contact his family or his counsel immediately. […] »

It was on Saturday, around ten o’clock in the morning, that a magistrate had joined him there, in order to notify him of the charge brought against him, on the complaint of a certain “combatant”, for “public insults to the general secretary.

Detention in prison in itself already constitutes a beginning of punishment, before any decision of Justice. It violates the right to be heard by a competent judge.

According to Mr. Mwanza, the secretary general of the UDPS promised to have him appointed to the Urban Transport Service of Lubumbashi, following the “multiple services rendered”, in particular the destabilization and ousting of Jean-Marc Kabund. Contrary to the expectations that should correspond to the so-called “services rendered”, Mr. Kabuya would have offered a lower position, at the level of the commune. This is the crux of the public feud, via social media.

By judging Secretary General Kabuya as a “mediocre leader who must release”, Mr. Mwanza says he is exercising his freedom of expression, guaranteed to him by Article 23 of the Constitution of the Republic, which does not conflict with any law, public order or morality.

The Institute protests against the public prosecutor’s office, which allows itself to be led into playing a hideous role as the disciplinary body of the party in power, through politically motivated selective justice. The Superior Council of the Judiciary (CSM) should prohibit magistrates from repressing certain “young insulters”, while tolerating others.

The widespread scourge of “online public insulters” reflects the bankruptcy of political parties. It can only be eradicated by reminding all parties to comply with the prescriptions of Article 6 of the Constitution of the Republic imposing on them the duty of civic education of their members and the strengthening of national consciousness.

–
Maître Hubert Tshiswaka MasokaDirector General of the IRDH.
Phone: +243851103409
Email: [email protected]