The leader of 12 Civil Society organizations in Democratic Republic of Congo, Fidel Bafilemba has declared that a petition has been launched asking President Joseph Kabila to pardon a legislator jailed in the country, CEOAFRICA.com gathered from Kinshasa.

It was gathered that Muhindo Nzangi, who represents the North Kivu capital, Goma, was arrested after being accused of going too far in criticizing President Joseph Kabila and of “demoralizing” army troops battling rebels in the eastern part of the country.

It was reported that Nzangi accused the government of deliberately mismanaging the political crisis in eastern Congo during a live radio show on a locally-based independent radio station.

Speaking to explain the content of their petition, Fidel Bafilemba said, “The petition is twofold. We want forgiveness from the president, but also amnesty, because without amnesty he could get out of jail without being able to go back to his job as a member of parliament.”

Furthermore, the arrest and detention of the lawmaker, according to Bafilemba, did not go down well with the residents of the constituency Nzangi represents.

“Members of the team are working to dispatch this petition to the president and to other government officials. His prosecution has been highly political because all this MP [Member of Parliament] was charged for is common or public knowledge because everybody talks about those same issues. But the expediency of the trial and the way it was conducted is only ridiculous.”
 
Bafilemba said the way Nzangi’s case was hurriedly concluded could be traced to the current governor of the North Kivu province since both are not in good terms, although representatives of the governor have denied the accusation.

“He is known not to get along with the current North Kivu province governor. Although we don’t have evidence, we believe that the governor must be behind it because of the way Nzangi was jailed. He was feared to be the prominent opponent of the chairmanship of the governing [party] here in Goma who could replace the current governor,” Bafilemba said.

While responding to some critics who described the lawmaker as a menace that compromised national security, an act punishable by law in spite of the immunity that legislators enjoy, Bafilemba said the mistreatment of the lawmaker is aimed at silencing any dissent in President Kabila’s ruling coalition.

“There have been some MPs who have gone to the frontlines of the conflict and they spoke to the media and nothing happened to them. But this guy, because he criticized the government and the security system, as soon as he came to the media and spoke about what he has seen then they accused him of being a threat to security, so it doesn’t really make sense,” said Bafilemba.