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Africa Subsaharan |
Activists get light sentences |
2006-12-28 |
Brazzaville - A court at Pointe-Noire in the Republic of Congo sentenced two human rights activists Wednesday to a suspended prison term of one year and fined them $601 each for fraud. Christian Mounzeo, president of the Rally for Peace and Human Rights (RPDH) and Brice Mackosso, executive secretary of the Roman Catholic Church's Justice and Peace Commission in Congo, were convicted of fraud, using forged documents and abuse of trust, said their lawyer Laurent Ngombi. The two men were arrested and jailed for three weeks in April on a charge of embezzling funds at RPDH, which they have both denied, in a case that has roused heated debate in the central African country. Their supporters say their trial was really motivated by politics. Many non-governmental organisations and some political parties hold that Mounzeo and Mackosso were detained because of their leading role in a coalition called Publish What You Pay, which has targeted the Brazzaville government for a lack of transparency regarding the management of Congo's oil industry and oil income. |
Posted by:Fred |