Too weakened by his hunger-strikethe journalist Senegalese Pape Alé Niang, returned to detention for six days for “information likely to harm national defense”, was transferred to hospital, said Sunday one of his lawyers. Pape Alé Niang “has been evacuated to the Principal Hospital in Dakar since this Saturday evening. He is very tried by his hunger strike” which he observes “since his new incarceration on Tuesday, December 20”, affirmed Me Moussa Sarr, confirming information from the Coordination of associations of presse (CAP), a local union confederation.
Boss of the Dakar Matin news site, Pape Alé Niang was returned to prison on December 20 after being released and placed under judicial supervision on December 14. His judicial review took place 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”.
“Abominable persecution and persecution”
The Dakar prosecutor’s office announced on December 20 in a press release that it had “revoked” this judicial review. He had justified it by the journalist’s “media outings” which are “a violation of the obligations” which “forbade him to communicate in any form on the facts subject to prosecution”. However, according to the public prosecutor’s office, “the defendant largely contravened his obligations by voluntarily addressing during his lives on Youtube the facts prosecuted” and during which he carried out “unjustified attacks both against a police authority and against the investigators”.
The journalist claims to be “the subject of abominable relentlessness and persecution” on the part of the Senegalese government, which “decided to silence (him) at all costs”, in a press release published on the day of his dismissal in jail. The journalist’s detention sparked a wave of criticism from the press and civil society against the authorities. Senegal is readily praised by its partners for its democratic practices, but human rights defenders qualify this assessment. Senegal is 73rd out of 180 in the latest press freedom ranking established by Reporters Without Borders. The country fell 24 places compared to 2021.