(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to President Ismael Omar Guelleh, RSF strongly protested the six-month prison sentence handed down to Daher Ahmed Farah and Ali Meidal Wais on appeal. RSF asked that the journalists receive a presidential pardon. Robert Ménard, RSF’s secretary-general, added that “a prison sentence for a press crime is considered by international […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to President Ismael Omar Guelleh, RSF strongly
protested the six-month prison sentence handed down to Daher Ahmed Farah and
Ali Meidal Wais on appeal. RSF asked that the journalists receive a
presidential pardon. Robert Ménard, RSF’s secretary-general, added that “a
prison sentence for a press crime is considered by international authorities
in charge of human rights, as ‘disproportionate’ to the prejudice suffered
by the victim. This explains why today no democratic states hand down prison
sentences in press matters.”
**Updates IFEX alert of 2 September 1999**
On 20 October 1999, Daher Ahmed Farah, editor-in-chief of the weekly “Le
Renouveau” and correspondent for RSF in his country, and Ali Meidal Wais,
former chief army officer and director of the monthly opposition paper “Le
Temps”, were sentenced on appeal to six months imprisonment. Found guilty of
“disseminating false news” and “attacking army morale”, they were sentenced
initially on 2 September to twelve and eight months in prison, respectively,
and fined one million Djibouti francs (US$5,814, 30,000 Euros). The
six-month suspension the journalists received at trial remains unchanged.
There is now no opposition newspaper remaining in Djibouti. Daher Ahmed
Farah, who is also president of the Democratic Renewal Party (Parti du
renouveau démocratique, PRD) and Ali Meidal Wais, a member of the High
Committee of the Unified Djibouti Opposition (ODU), had been arrested on 29
August for having published a press release put out by FRUD (an armed
opposition group). The press release confirmed that the group had destroyed
an army helicopter. The government had explained away the incident as an
accident.
