Download - English PEN

10
Not really a case – anyone attempting to enter a presidential residence
without formal invite/credentials should expect this!
Threatened/ Harassed
*Momodou Lamin JAITEH: a correspondent for the Senegal-based Pan
African News Agency, has gone into hiding after being harassed by
suspected NIA agents in relation to his alleged links to the Media
Foundation of West Africa (MFWA), a regional press freedom organisation
based in Ghana. On 29 June 2007 the journalist received a phone call
from the managing editor of the pro-government newspaper Daily
Observer, allegedly a close ally of President Yahya Jammeh, who interrogated
Jaiteh about his professional background and alleged links to
MFWA. Jaiteh reportedly denied any links with MFWA. Jaiteh then
received repeated anonymous phone calls and a visit from men suspected
to be security agents. The president of the Gambia Press Union has also
reported receiving a call from the Daily Observer managing director
inquiring about Jaiteh. Jaiteh went into hiding shortly afterwards.
On Trial
Fatou Jaw MANNEH (f): Gambian freelance journalist (contributor to
the US-based opposition website AllGambian.net, former reporter for the
private Daily Observer), and pro-democracy activist, living in exile in the
United States since gaining political asylum in 1994 following the coup
that brought President Yahya Jammeh to power. Arrest: Manneh, who is
understood to have returned to Gambia to pay tribute to her late father,
was arrested by National Intelligence Agency (NIA) officers on her
arrival from the USA at the international airport in the capital Banjul on
28 March 2007. She was detained for a week, during which time she was
denied access to a lawyer or her family. Charges: On 4 April 2007
Manneh finally appeared before a court in Kanifing, 12 km outside the
capital. She was charged on three counts of sedition under Gambia’s
criminal code: “intention to commit sedition”, “publication of seditious
words” and “publication of false news intended to cause public fear and
alarm to the Gambian public”. Each count carries a maximum prison
term of two years or a fine or both. Manneh pleaded not guilty and was
released on bail. Her travel documents were reportedly confiscated. A
fourth charge, “uttering seditious words”, was added on 20 June. Manneh
is being prosecuted for articles critical of President Jammeh, particularly
an interview with her in which she accused President Yahya Jammeh of
“tearing our beloved country to shreds” and calling him a “bundle of
terror”. The interview was first published in the now defunct bi-weekly
The Independent in June 2004 and later published on several websites,
including AllGambian.net in October 2005. Trial/ New information:
The trial is being dragged out, with counsels reportedly often failing to
turn up in court and endless wrangling over which court should hear the
case. Ironically, given the overruling of the defence lawyer’s original
argument that the Kanifing court did not have jurisdiction to hear the case
as the alleged offences took place when Manneh was outside Gambia, the
case has since been batted from court to court on jurisdictional grounds.
In July 2007 the Kanifing Magistrates Court transferred the case to
Banjul, arguing that it was in that city that the offending articles were
reportedly downloaded from the Internet. A month later the Banjul
Magistrates Court in turn ruled that since the offending articles had been
published on the internet the case was a “global issue” but then, with
little apparent logic, referred the case to Brikama on the grounds that
Manneh was arrested at Banjul airport, which falls within the jurisdiction
of the Brikama administrative region. In September 2007 it was reported
that the Brikama Magistrates Court had refused to hear the case and had
referred it back to Banjul. On 7 December, Banjul High Court ruled that
the case would be moved back to Kanifing Magistrates Court, where it
had originally started, and where that a number of witnesses had already
testified. These delays have prompted speculation that the state lacks
evidence for the prosecution and is trying to buy time. PEN is continuing
to monitor the case.
GUINEA (CONAKRY)
Suspended sentence
*Abdoul Azziz CAMARA and Thiernodjo DIALLO: directors of newspapers
Libération and La Vérité, were each given six-month suspended
prison sentences and a 50 million Guinean franc (US$12,781) fine on
criminal defamation charges on 13 August 2007. They were also ordered
to pay one million francs (US$256) in costs and to publish the verdict.
The charges were filed by a former public works and transport minister
who was accused of embezzlement in articles published by the two newspapers
in March and April. An appeal was lodged on 14 August 2007.
GUINEA-BISSAU
On trial – in hiding
*Albert DABO: correspondent for news agency Reuters, was charged on
27 August 2007 with libel, violating state secrets, libellous denunciation,
abusing press freedom and colluding with foreign journalists. This
followed a complaint lodged against him by the chief of the national
navy, who claimed that Dabo had falsely attributed to him the allegation
that soldiers are implicated in drug trafficking during an interview for
ITN News, a British television station for which Dabo had acted as an
interpreter. According to Dabo, none of the media outlets where he
works carried this interview. Dabo and another journalist, Agence France
Presse correspondent Allen Yero Emballo, had briefly gone into hiding
on 26 July 2007 after receiving threats linked to their reports implicating
high-ranking civilians and military officials in drug trafficking in Guinea-
Bissau. The articles followed the publication of the UN 2007 World Drug
Report, which named the country as a major transit and trafficking point
for cocaine. Military officials demanded that Dabo and Emballo retract
their reports on national radio and, when the journalists failed to do so,
ordered them and two other broadcast journalists to report to the nearest
police station. As there are no prison facilities in the country, if captured
the journalists would have been held in military installations where it was
feared they would be at risk of torture. All four went into hiding shortly
afterwards. As of 31 December 2007, the trial was still pending and the
death threats against Dabo continued. PEN monitoring.
IVORY COAST
Disappeared – presumed killed
Guy-André KIEFFER: writer and independent reporter who holds joint
French and Canadian nationality, disappeared on 16 April 2004. Kieffer
was last seen at a shopping centre in Abidjan and has made no contact
with anyone since that time. According to RSF, he was “abducted from
the car park of an Abidjan supermarket, at around 1pm on 16 April 2004
after falling into a trap set for him by a member of President Laurent
Gbagbo’s entourage”. Background: The journalist and writer, who had
lived with his family in the Ivory Coast for several years, was the Abidjan
correspondent for the French publication La Lettre du Continent, had
written for French business publication La Tribune and contributed occa-