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Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | A group of plainclothes men attacked journalists in the Republic of the Congo on Thursday as they tried to attend a press conference held by the legal team of a jailed opposition figure, an AFP correspondent said.
The assault took place outside the offices of the “La Semaine Africain” newspaper in Brazzaville where lawyers for jailed opposition politician Andre Okombi Salissa planned to brief the press.
Laudes Martial Mbon, a correspondent for both AFP and RFI, said he and other reporters were attacked before the press conference began.
“Journalists and even bystanders were assaulted,” he said.
“I was attacked by people in plainclothes who struck me and took away my possessions, my microphone, dictaphone and my phone,” he said, adding other journalists also had their phones seized.
The press conference did not go ahead.
Along with four other opposition figures, Okombi had sought to stop President Denis Sassou Nguesso from returning to power during polls last year.
He has been in jail since January on charges of “undermining internal security” and possessing “war weapons”
