DRC’s former Presidential candidate Seth Kikuni has been transferred to Malaka maximum prison in DRC’s capital Kinshasa, Taarifa has reliably established.
According to emerging details, Seth Kikuni the leader of political party “Piste pour l’urgence” was transferred this Saturday, September 28, to the Kinshasa penitentiary and re-education center.
Seth Kikuni has been under prolonged detention at the national Intelligence (ANR)facility which attracted several protests from civil society organisations.
According to his lawyers, Kikuni was on September 13, paraded for questioning before the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Appeal in Kinshasa/Gombe after which was returned to ANR detention.Kikuni is accused of “inciting civil disobedience and spreading false rumors.”
However,His political party, Piste pour L’Emergence, rejects these accusations, calling them “prefabricated grievances” taken from his speech in Lubumbashi.
Meanwhile, the framework for consultation of political and social forces convened at the Justice ministry on September 23 and issued a memo demanding the unconditional release of Kikuni.”
The objective is to demand the release of the president of “Piste pour l’Émergence”, as well as that of political prisoners and civil society actors, such as Jean-Marc Kabund, Mike Mukebayi and others,” the memo said in part.”
The framework for consultation of political and social forces vehemently condemns the illegal transfer on 27/09/2024 of President Seth Kikuni to the central prison of Makala, while his file is clearly empty and does not justify any prosecution,” the memo reads.
It adds, “the relentlessness of which Kikuni is the victim has no legal basis and only serves to muzzle once again a figure engaged in the fight for a free and just Congo.”
“This authoritarian maneuver testifies to the repressive drift of the regime, which instrumentalizes justice to stifle the opposition and intimidate citizens. We demand the immediate and unconditional release of Seth Kikuni” said the framework for consultation.
