(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter addressed to the president of the Court of Appeal, Abdoulaye Yaya, RSF protested the three-month prison sentence against Hippolyte Agboh, managing editor of the private weekly “L’Exilé”. RSF asked Yaya for no prison sentence to be pronounced against the journalist during the appeal trial, and for the weekly “L’Exilé” to […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter addressed to the president of the Court of Appeal, Abdoulaye
Yaya, RSF protested the three-month prison sentence against Hippolyte Agboh, managing editor of the private weekly “L’Exilé”. RSF asked Yaya for no prison sentence to be pronounced against the journalist during the appeal trial, and for the weekly “L’Exilé” to continue to be published. The organisation noted that in his report to the Human Rights Commission in January 2000, the special rapporteur of the United Nations on the freedom of opinion and expression indicated that “in all cases, imprisonment as a sentence for the peaceful expression of an opinion constitutes a serious violation of human rights.” RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard deplored the sentence, “which constitutes the maximum sentence provided for by the new penal code adopted in January 2000, which introduced prison sentences for violations of press laws.”
According to information obtained by RSF, Agboh was condemned to three months in prison and a fine of one million CFA francs (approx. US$1,400) by the Correctional Chamber of the Court of First Instance in Lomé on 15 May for “broadcasting false news and defamation”. The judge also ordered a suspension of the weekly for a period of six months. Incarcerated since 14 April in the civil prison of Lomé, Agboh had announced, incorrectly, in the 13 April edition of “L’Exilé”, the death of Liling Gnassingbé, one of President Gnassingbé Eyadéma’s daughters, in a car accident.
