DR Congo reporter gets 6 months over military intelligence story

Kinshasa: A prominent DR Congo journalist was sentenced Monday to six months in prison for allegedly incriminating military intelligence in the murder...

Kinshasa: A prominent DR Congo journalist was sentenced Monday to six months in prison for allegedly incriminating military intelligence in the murder of an opposition politician.

Stanis Bujakera, 33, has been jailed since September over an article in Jeune Afrique magazine that suggested Congolese military intelligence operatives had killed opposition politician Cherubin Okende the month before.

The article -- which was unsigned -- was based on an alleged confidential memo from a separate intelligence agency. Congolese authorities have said the memo is a fake.

A Kinshasa court found Bujakera guilty on charges including forgery and "spreading false rumours", and ordered the six-month sentence along with a fine of one million Congolese francs ($400). Prosecutors had asked Bujakera to be jailed for 20 years.

His arrest followed a Jeune Afrique article published in late August, which suggested that Congolese military intelligence had killed Okende the month before.