Human Rights Leader Arrested

Floribert Chibeya, one of the Congo's most important and durable human rights activists, founder and executive director of La Voix des Sans Voix, was arrested on 15 March in Kinshasa by officers of the Police Nationale Congolaise, the national police force. From Amnesty:

According to eyewitnesses, Chibeya and two of his colleagues were beaten, handcuffed and “thrown” into police vehicles and then taken to the Kin-Mazière detention centre in central Kinshasa, the headquarters of the Special Services police.

They have been held incommunicado since then, and are considered to be at risk of torture and other ill-treatment.

The men were arrested just after they had held a press conference calling for a peaceful protest march and sit-in in of front the National Assembly, to protest against what they regard as unconstitutional attempts by the ruling AMP political coalition of President Joseph Kabila to force the removal from office of the President of the National Assembly, Vital Kamerhe, and other members of the National Assembly’s Secretariat.