(MFWA/IFEX) – On 14 February 2005, Lansana Sarr, a reporter with the state-owned daily “Horoya”, was beaten by members of the police’s special interventions unit (Brigade Spéciale d’Intervention de la Police, BSIP) and detained for three and a half hours after covering a protest march in Conakry. According to a MFWA-Guinea source in Conakry, employees […]
(MFWA/IFEX) – On 14 February 2005, Lansana Sarr, a reporter with the state-owned daily “Horoya”, was beaten by members of the police’s special interventions unit (Brigade Spéciale d’Intervention de la Police, BSIP) and detained for three and a half hours after covering a protest march in Conakry.
According to a MFWA-Guinea source in Conakry, employees of the Camayenne Hotel in downtown Conakry had organised a demonstration to demand a financial settlement following a decision to sell the hotel. The demonstrators were attacked by the BSIP officers.
Sarr was attempting to photograph employees who were bleeding from beatings they had received when BSIP officers, armed with batons and heavy belts, began to beat him as well. They then dragged the journalist to their patrol van, threw him on the floor and confiscated his camera and cellular phone. He was taken to the Compagnie Mobile d’Intervention de la Sécurité (CMIS) prison on the outskirts of Conakry at around 3:00 p.m. (local time).
Sarr was released at about 8:30 p.m. by the BSIP commander. His cellular phone was returned to him but the officer in charge kept the journalist’s camera, insisting that Sarr develop the negatives in his presence so he could destroy the pictures that he did not want “Horoya” to publish.
Sarr still bears the marks of the attack by the policemen.
MFWA is deeply troubled by such assaults on journalists by security forces in Guinea.
