Caselist - PEN International

12given an opportunity to testify. He said he had left the police force thatyear after harassment and intimidation from fellow officers. The hearingis to continue on 1 March 2012.Threatened/In Hiding*Robert WANYONYI: journalist with the East African Standard receiveddeath threats in early December 2011. He had been reporting on a seriesof extra-judicial killings in Bungoma County. These killings involve thelocal Provincial Administration and the local police who clashed withvillagers over a theft at a coffee shop. Seven people were killed in theviolence that followed, and Wanyoni escaped the scene in his car. Hetold PEN International that he has evidence showing police murderingcivilians.Case ClosedFwamba N C FWAMBA: contributor to various print media and a memberof Kenyan PEN, was charged in 2009 alongside Philo Ikonya, Presidentof Kenyan PEN,. with “taking part in an unlawful assembly” andreleased on bail. (See previous case list.) Case was judged defective in2011 and reportedly thrown out (exact date not known). Case closed.LIBERIADeath threat*Rodney SIEH: editor-in-chief of the daily and online newspaperFrontPage Africa reportedly received a telephoned death on 12 July2011 from a senior Liberian official that he would ‘eliminate’ him. Theeditor was preparing the next-day edition of the newspaper when a stafferentered his office and notified him of the phone call and the threat to hislife. A FrontPage Africa investigative story had revealed how the officialhad returned to political circles as a key operative in the ruling UnityParty. The official resigned in from his post in 2007 as a Minister of Statefor Presidential Affairs after he was involved in a sex scandal.Attacked*Welemongai CIAPHA: journalist for the newspaper FrontPage Africanewspaper was allegedly beaten up along with a photographer for thepaper on 14 December 2011 by Pastor Bethel Onyeneken of the SolutionTemple Church and his bodyguards. The incident took place in theprecinct of the Temple of Justice, where Pastor Onyeneken was on trialfor allegedly stealing a gold chain. After the assault, various newspapersreportedly quoted the assistant county attorney for Montserrado, DedehJomah Wilson, justifying the beating of the journalists and the seizure ofthe camera.MALAWIBrief detention*Collins MTIKA: reporter for the Nyasatimes.com website was releasedunconditionally on 25 July 2011 after the Police failed to chargehim with any offence. He was arrested on 21 July 2011 while he wascovering protests which took place in different cities. The two days ofprotests were organised by civil society groups to protest against fuelshortages, rising prices and a general decline of the economy. Accordingto Malawi’s laws a person is supposed to be charged within 48 hours ofarrest and to be given an opportunity to apply for bail.Death Threat*Joseph MWALE: journalist, received death threats in September 2011after allegedly publishing on the internet a recording of a private conversationbetween Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation MinisterPeter Mutharika and former Deputy Minister of Sports and CultureCharles Mchacha. Mwale was recently fired by one of the country’sbroadcaster and journalism training institutions, the Malawi Instituteof Journalism (MIJ), for allegedly publicising the recording. Mwalesaid that he had received death threats via text messages. According toMwale, one of the text messages said, “How dare you shame our nextpresident? You thought you were a hero? We will make you a villainbecause you will soon die. Mind you, we monitor you and we controleverything. We threatened them and they sacked you. Now they are quiet.This is operation 2011. You will soon go to HHI.” HHI stands for theHenry Henderson Institute, where there is a cemetery in the commercialcity of Blantyre.Attacked*Amos GUMULIRA (Nation Publication), Kondwani MUNTHALI(Nation Publication), Leonard SHARRA (Blantyre newspaper) andJacob NANKHONYA (Blantyre newspaper) (Blantyre newspaper): journalistswere beaten on 20 July 2011 by police while they were coveringprotests which took place in different cities. The two days of protestswere organised by civil society groups to protest against fuel shortages,rising prices and a general decline of the economy.*Emmanuel SIMPOKOLWE, Elijah PHIMBI: journalists for GuardianPublications, and online news site Malawi Voice were attacked by policeduring the political unrest that swept the country during mid-July 2011.MAURITANIAExpelled*Abdelhafiz AL-BAQALI: the Moroccan Press Agency’s bureau chief,was expelled from the Mauritania on 23 December 2011. Al-Baqali is aMoroccan citizen who has been working in Nouakchott, the Mauritaniancapital, for two years. The circumstances surrounding his expulsion areunclear.MAURITIUSImprisoned: maincase* Dharmanand DOOHARIKA: editor-in-chief of the private weeklySamedi Plus was sentenced to three months in prison on 20 October2011, owing to stories he ran in the newspaper reporting corruptionallegations made about the judiciary. Dooharika is in the main prison inthe town of Beau-Bassin. The conviction stems from press coverage inJuly and August 2010 of the activities of a businessman and disbarredlawyer, who represented a car leasing company in a fraud lawsuit againstthe local subsidiary of the United Kingdom-based global financialservices provider Barclays. The Supreme Court ruled against him. Hethen made public allegations of partiality against Supreme Court ChiefJustice Bernard Sik Yuen. In response to the accusations, the chief justiceasked the Mauritian president to take steps to sanction the businessman/disbarred lawyer, according to news reports. The government’s Directorof Public Prosecutions then brought complaints against Samedi Plus forcovering the remarks. In its complaint against Dooharika, the Directorof Public Prosecutions cited an August 14, 2010, editorial that suggestedthe allegations against the chief justice should be given credence. SamediPlus devoted extensive coverage to the case and the allegations, includingthe front page, the complaint said. The director accused the journalist of“publicly scandalizing the Supreme Court,” “bringing the administrationof justice into disrepute,” and “thereby committing a contempt of court.”Shortly after the announcement of the verdict Monday, Dooharika faintedat the courthouse and was hospitalized under police guard for high bloodpressure.NIGERBrief detention* Zakari ALZOUMA and Ayouba KARIMOU: publisher and managingeditor respectively of Opinion, a privately-owned Niamey-based newspaper,were on 7 October 2011 arrested and detained for about six hoursat the headquarters of the Criminal Investigative Department (CID) ofthe Nigerien Police Service in Niamey. The arrest and subsequent detentionof the two followed a complaint filed against them by the country’sstate prosecutor at the Niamey High Court. On 13 October Alzouma andKarimou appeared before the state prosecutor to answer further questionsregarding a September article in which their newspaper allegedly accusedthe magistrates’ body, the Independent Union of Magistrates of Niger(SAMAN), of corruption. The article in question, entitled “Corporatismor Stupidity?” appeared in the September 28 issue of the newspaper andsupported the Minister of Justice, Marou Amadou, who had said thatjudges and magistrate in the country were corrupt.*Modibo OUMAROU: managing editor of the privately- owned newspaperLe Canard Dechanine was arrested on 21 July 2011 and detainedovernight at the civilian prison in Niamey. He was charged with disseminationof false information because he had repeatedly published “falsetheft” allegations against the former press secretary of General DjibouSalou, Chairman of the transitional military government of Niger. Nofurther news at 31 December 2011.NIGERIADetained*Lawal OGIENAGBON, Dapo OLUFADE, Yusuf ALLI, YomiODUNUGA: deputy editor of The Nation, news editor of the newspaper,managing editor in charge of northern operations, and theAbuja bureau chief respectively were arrested by police on 11 October2011. Ogienagbon and Olufade were arrested in Lagos and Alli andOdunuga were arrested in Abuja. All were detained at the NigerianPolice Headquarters. Ogienagbon was reportedly later flown to Abujaafter writing a statement. Dupe Olaoye-Oshinkolu (f), the newspaper’slabour correspondent, and Jide Adegbenjo, its chief security officer, whovolunteered to go with them, were also detained. The raid and arrests arebelieved to be over the 4 October 2011 cover story entitled “Obasanjo’s‘secret’ letter to Jonathan stirs anger; Ex-President seeks sack of PTDFchief, four others”. Ogienagbon, Odunuga and Olufade were released onthe 11 October 2011. Alli was released on the 13 October 2011.Judicial Harassment*Olajide FASHIKUN: editor of the National Accord newspaper in thecapital Abuja, was arrested on 14 November 2011 and is being suedfor libel over and article he wrote revealing alleged corruption in theNigerian Football Federation. He wrote a series of articles about a letterbearing the allegedly forged signature of Sepp Blatter, president ofworld football governing body FIFA, to the Nigerian Football Federation(NFF). Although Fashikun has since been released, the offices of thenewspaper were ransacked and his laptop and hard drive were seized.Fashikun is being sued because the NFF has claimed that the integrity ofits committee members has been damaged by his articles.RWANDAKilled: official investigation ongoingJean Leonard RUGAMBAGE: deputy editor of the banned newspaperUmuvugizi, was shot in the chest as he drove through the gate of his homein the capital Kigali on 24 June 2010. Police arrived at the scene soonafterwards but Rugambage was already dead. Police investigations wereopened. Prior to his death, Rugambage (34) had reportedly told friendsand colleagues that he was being followed and had received phonethreats. Jean-Bosco Gasasira, the exiled editor of Umuvugizi, said hebelieved the murder was reprisal for a recent story alleging governmentinvolvement in the attempted assassination of a former Rwandan armycommander in South Africa. Gasasira suspected that Rwandan securityoperatives were behind the killing. The government has denied the accusationsas “baseless”. On 28 June 2010, the police announced that two,unnamed people had been arrested in connection with the shooting. Theysaid that one of the suspects, who had already pleaded guilty, is relatedto a person allegedly killed by Rugambage during the 1994 genocide.Rugambage was acquitted of genocide charges by a local gacaca courtin 2007. Background: Umuvugizi, considered to be one of the few criticalvoices in Rwanda, was suspended for six months by the Media HighCouncil in April 2010, and when the newspaper moved online soon after,its website was blocked within Rwanda. These developments occurred inthe run-up to the presidential elections scheduled for August 2010. Beforejoining Umuvugizi, Rugambage was a reporter for the now-defunctindependent tabloid newsaper Umuco. He was imprisoned for 11 monthsin 2005-06 after writing an article alleging mismanagement and witnesstampering in Rwanda’s traditional courts for suspects of the 1994 genocide.He is survived by a wife and a two-year-old daughter, according tolocal journalists. Trial of alleged killers: At the end of June 2010 it wasreported that two suspects had been arrested and that one had pleadedguilty to the murder. Didace Nduguyangu and Antoine Karemera werearrested the day after the killing, on 25 June. Nduguyangu reportedlypleaded guilty to shooting Rugambage, saying that Karemera had advisedhim to do so to avenge Rugambage’s alleged murder of membersof his family in the 1994 genocide. Karemera denied any responsibility.There was scepticism among journalists about the arrest as the governmentdid disclose details of the investigation. Both suspects were reportedlysentenced to life imprisonment for the crime on 29 October 2010.New information: On 23 June 2011, a year after Rugambage’s murder,Amnesty International stated that there is no evidence that the police exploredleads that indicated that the killing was politically motivated. Itcalled on the Rwandan government to re-open the investigation by establishingan independent commission of enquiry. [RAN 37-10] UPDATE:15 September, Nduguyangu received a ten-year sentence; Karemera wasacquitted.Imprisoned: main casesAgnes UWIMANA (f) and Saidati MUKAKIBIBI (f): respectivelyeditor and assistant editor/ reporter of the now-defunct independentweekly tabloid newspaper Umurabyo, are serving long prison sentenceson charges of sedition, inciting public disorder, ethnic “divisionism” and 13