(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Macedonian Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski, RSF protested the assault on Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondent Colin Neacsu and his interpreter Lumni Murseli. Both men were arrested on 8 June 2001 and mistreated for several hours at a Skopje police station. “The unacceptable assaults on the two men must be unequivocally […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Macedonian Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski, RSF protested the assault on Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondent Colin Neacsu and his interpreter Lumni Murseli. Both men were arrested on 8 June 2001 and mistreated for several hours at a Skopje police station.
“The unacceptable assaults on the two men must be unequivocally condemned and the authors of the attacks should immediately be punished,” stated Robert Ménard, the organisation’s secretary-general. “We ask that you take all the necessary measures to ensure that such actions do not reoccur,” added Ménard.
According to information collected by RSF, AFP correspondent Neacsu and his interpreter Murseli were arrested on 8 June by Macedonian soldiers while driving near the town of Aracinov. They were handed over to police forces for interrogation and were mistreated for several hours at a Skopje police station. Neacsu was brutally beaten and detained for several hours in an underground cell at the police station. Murseli spent the night handcuffed to a table, his head covered with a garbage bag. He was beaten repeatedly by police officers. The two men were released on 9 June at approximately 6:30 a.m. (local time). The two AFP contributors did not have the accreditation required by the authorities in order to work in Macedonia. Nonetheless, they had legally entered Macedonia at the Kosovo border.
