The UN returned its opinion and recognises the arbitrariness of the detention of Christopher Ngoyi Mutamba on September 4, 2015 following FIDH’s submission of his case to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD).
Christopher Ngoyi Mutamba is president of the NGO ’Synergie Congo culture et développement’ and Coordinator of the ’Civil Society of Congo’ platform. He took part in several peaceful protests denouncing electoral reform and documented human rights violations that occurred during the protests. On January 21, 2015, Christopher Ngoyi Mutamba was kidnapped by armed men from the republican guard and removed to an unknown location. He was held incommunicado for about twenty days by the national intelligence agency (ANR) and on February 5, 2015, the government brought a number of charges against him, including arson, looting and incitement to racial hatred.
The WGAD found no legal basis justifying his detention which resulted from the exercise of his human rights activities and did not respect the international norms relating to the right to a fair trial. Consequently, it declared Christopher Ngoyi Mutamba’s detention arbitrary and requested that the DRC government release him immediately and offer reparation for the serious moral and material prejudice suffered.
See the background to his case here