President Felix Tshisekedi’s critic has been detained by a military court in the Democratic Republic of Congo after attacking the leader in a video that went viral.
Bunia – A provincial opposition assemblyman who criticised Democratic Republic of Congo President Felix Tshisekedi in a viral video has been detained by a military court, his lawyer said on Monday.
Jean-Bosco Assamba, a member of a coalition that supports Tshisekedi’s predecessor and arch-rival Joseph Kabila, “has just been transferred to Bunia prison,” his lawyer Jean-Marie Ezadri told AFP.
Assamba had been held since Sunday after responding to a summons from police intelligence, and spent the night in the military prosecutor’s office in Bunia, capital of the northeastern Ituri province.
He saw the prosecutor of Bunia’s military court on Monday but “the reason for his detention has not yet been defined,” Ezadri said.
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Congolese media reported that Assamba was suspected of “insulting the head of state” for comments he made on a video that has been widely shared on social media for weeks.
Ezadri said the video was recorded when Assamba was invited to speak at an event earlier in the year about security in Ituri, where numerous armed groups have been terrorising the civilian population.
In the video, Assamba said that responsibility for restoring peace to Ituri lies with Tshisekedi.
“The president of the republic is very deceptive,” he said, drawing laughter from the audience.
“I am beginning to doubt whether the head of state really cares about Ituri’s population… He promised disarmament, nothing. He promised many things, nothing. He said he would come here, nothing. Everything he promises, he doesn’t do,” Assamba said in the video.
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It was recorded before Tshisekedi declared a “state of siege” in Ituri and neighbouring North Kivu in May in a bid to crack down on the militia bloodshed.
Assamba is an elected member of the Common Front for Congo (FCC), which supports Kabila, who ruled the vast central African country with an iron fist until 2019.
When Tshisekedi won the presidency in 2019 he was forced into a coalition with the FCC, but after a power struggle, he wrested control of the government earlier this year.
Source: AFP
Picture: Twitter/@NewTimesRwanda
