A/HRC/4/7 page 9 40. During the night of 23/24 October, 14 prisoners sentenced to death after the trial for the assassination of President Laurent Désiré Kabila made their escape unhindered from the Kinshasa Penal and Rehabilitation Centre (CPRK). According to corroborative sources, three of them were recaptured in the evening of 25 October. It should be pointed out that the fugitives were former members of the National Intelligence Agency. 41. There is some doubt about the number of casualties of the 26 October mutiny by prisoners of the Kinshasa Penal and Rehabilitation Centre (CPRK), which led to the use of firearms by the Congolese National Police: a few injured, according to the police and prison authorities, and five to seven dead, according to human rights NGOs and the MONUC office in Kinshasa. 42. On 17 and 19 November 2006, two detainees of the Beni prison (North-Kivu) died of sicknesses related to the deplorable conditions of detention in that institution, which was built in 1945 for up to 80 persons and today houses more than 300 prisoners. Pending the rehabilitation of this prison, the Beni administrative and judicial authorities advocate transferring part of the detainees to the Vuovu prison (Lubero), recently rehabilitated by MONUC. 43. According to a news report by the OHCHR field office in Kinshasa dated 11 December 2006, the Director of the Mbuji-Mayi prison regretted the death of five prisoners due to lack of food and necessary treatment. The non-governmental organization International Prison Fraternity, which supplied certain needs such as meals, had halted its assistance three months earlier. The situation remains very precarious. IV. JUSTICE, IMPUNITY AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS A. Internal justice and impunity 44. The smooth functioning of the justice system depends on working conditions in its institutions and the resources placed at their disposal. However, the budget allocation for justice in both 2005 and 2006 was insignificant (about 0.6 per cent) when measured against the myriad problems facing this crucial sector, notably the dilapidation of infrastructures, shortages of judges and magistrates and intolerable working conditions. 45. For instance, in the context of reform of the justice system, Act No. 06/020 concerning the status of judges in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was promulgated by the President of the Republic, Joseph Kabila, on 10 October 2006. The Act was published in the Official Gazette of the Democratic Republic of the Congo dated 27 October 2006. 46. The independent expert also draws attention to the verdict in the so-called Songo-Mboyo trial, a decision that created a considerable stir among the general public. On 12 April 2006, the Mbandaka garrison court (Équateur Province) handed down its verdict in the trial of the soldiers of the former 2nd and 3rd Brigades of the Mouvement pour la libération du Congo (MLC), accused of mass rape of a number of women and girls living in the locality of Songo-Mboyo, in Bongandanga territory (see A/61/475, paras. 149-151).