**Updates IFEX alert of 15 May 2000** (RSF/IFEX) – In a letter addressed to the President of Bangui’s Correctional Court, Mr. Assana, RSF protested the call for prison sentences against Cardoso de Meillot, managing editor of the private daily “Le Démocrate”, and Raphaël Kopessoua, managing editor of the private weekly “Vouma la mouche”. RSF noted […]
**Updates IFEX alert of 15 May 2000**
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter addressed to the President of Bangui’s Correctional Court, Mr. Assana, RSF protested the call for prison sentences against Cardoso de Meillot, managing editor of the private daily “Le Démocrate”, and Raphaël Kopessoua, managing editor of the private weekly “Vouma la mouche”. RSF noted that in January 2000, the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations on Freedom of Opinion and Expression affirmed that “imprisonment as a punishment for the peaceful expression of an opinion constitutes a serious violation of human rights.” “This explains why today no democratic state pronounces prison sentences in press affairs,” added Robert Ménard, RSF’s secretary-general.
According to the information obtained by RSF, on 17 May 2000 the state prosecutor of Bangui’s Correctional Tribunal called for twelve month prison sentences for de Meillot and Kopessoua, in addition to fines of 200,000 and 500,000 CFA francs (300 and 760 euros, USD$ 274 and $686), for “insulting the head of state”. De Meillot, incarcerated since 5 May 2000 at the criminal bureau of Bangui, is charged with publishing an article entitled “Can Patassé lay claim to external aid?”, which stated that “financially aiding Patassé is a crime against the Central African people”. The article added that the head of state is not a “man of his word”. Kopessoua, who has released on bail, is being prosecuted for an article entitled “Jonas Yologaza [ex-national director of the Bank of Central African States – BEAC] wears the cross of Patassé”, in which denounced the involvement of the financier in the “laundering of mafia money”.
