(MFWA/IFEX) – Malick Mboob, a former “Daily Observer” journalist, is still in National Intelligence Agency (NIA) custody, 42 days after his arrest by the Gambian police force. He has been in arbitrary detention without trial far in excess of the 72 hours that the Gambian 1997 constitution stipulates, since his arrest on 26 May 2006. […]
(MFWA/IFEX) – Malick Mboob, a former “Daily Observer” journalist, is still in National Intelligence Agency (NIA) custody, 42 days after his arrest by the Gambian police force.
He has been in arbitrary detention without trial far in excess of the 72 hours that the Gambian 1997 constitution stipulates, since his arrest on 26 May 2006.
Mboob’s arrest and subsequent arbitrary detention came in the wake of a government clampdown on journalists whose names were published in the pro-government privately owned “Daily Observer” for allegedly sending damaging information to the online publication “Freedom Newspaper”.
According to MFWA’s The Gambia source, people who subscribe to the online publication were also arrested. All of them have since been released without formally being charged.
The source said Mboob, who until his arrest was working as a communication officer at the country’s main hospital, the Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital, is the only journalist who still remains in custody without charge.
Meanwhile, Omar Bah, news editor of the “Daily Observer”, has been reportedly missing since May, a few days before he was declared wanted by the Gambian police for his alleged contribution to the online newspaper.
Musa Saidykhan, managing editor of the Banjul-based bi-weekly “The Independent” who was arrested in the aftermath of an alleged coup attempt against the government in March, has fled into exile in Senegal.
For the past four months, the office of “The Independent” has been forcibly shut down. Lamin Fatty, a reporter of “The Independent”, who is standing trial for allegedly publishing “false information”, was illegally detained for more than 60 days.
