The journalist’s state of health, reincceded two weeks ago, is deemed “worrying”, indicated the coordination of press associations in Senegal.
MO12345lemonde with AFP
The Senegalese journalist Pape Alé Niang, referred to detention for two weeks for “information likely to harm national defense” is “extremely tested” by his hunger strike, said on Monday, January 2, ‘AFP one of his lawyers. “I pray that the irreparable does not occur,” said AFP M
e Moussa Sarr about the journalist on hunger strike since his new incarceration on December 20, 2022.
His state of health has become “worrying” for five days after “his refusal to follow the treatment of doctors” at the Dakar principal hospital where he had been evacuated on December 24, said the coordination of press associations (CAP), a union confederation in a press release published on Sunday.
In a message published on December 29 by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the journalist had declared to remain “strong and determined, always ready to [fight for press freedom”.
Patron of the Dakar morning news site, Mr. Niang had been sent back to prison on December 20 after being released and placed under judicial supervision on December 14. His judicial control had intervened after more than a month of detention near Dakar for “disclosure of information likely to harm national defense”, “concealment of administrative and military documents” and “dissemination of false news”.
“persecution”
The Dakar prosecutor’s office announced on December 20 in a statement to have “revoked” this judicial control. He had justified it by the “media outings” of the journalist who are “a violation of the obligations” which defended him “to communicate in any form on the facts of prosecution”.
The journalist claims to be “the subject of abominable relentlessness and persecution on the part of the Senegalese power who” decided to silence it at all costs “, in a press release published on the day of his referral to prison.
The journalist’s detention aroused a wave of press and civil society criticisms against the authorities. Senegal is willingly rented by its partners for its democratic practices, but human rights defenders nuance this appreciation.
Senegal is 73rd out of 180 in the last classification on the freedom of the press established by Reporters Without Borders. The country has lost 24 places compared to 2021.