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ECOWAS Court
Defers Judgment in Gambian Journalist’s Case
The Community
Court of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on
November 28 adjourned its judgment to January 31, 2008 in the case of
the “disappearance” of Chief Ebrima Manneh, a reporter for the
pro-government Banjul-based Daily Observer newspaper. This was the third
adjournment on the matter in November.
The Court said
it should be given enough time to write its judgment on the case. The
decision was taken by a panel of three judges after hearing the final
submission from Manneh’s lawyer, Femi Falana, a Nigerian human rights
lawyer and President of the West African Bar Association (WABA).
The Court had on
November 26, heard testimonies from three witnesses, one of whom
testified that he witnessed the arrest of Chief Manneh by personnel of
the notoriously feared National Intelligence Agency (NIA) on July 7,
2006 at the premises of Daily Observer.
Another witness
testified that he saw Manneh in December 2006 at a Police Station in Fatoto, Gambia’s last eastern town, about 500 kilometres from the
capital, Banjul.
On November 20,
the had Court deferred judgment till November 26, 2007 because one of
the three judges who heard the case fell ill and had to travel abroad
for treatment.
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From left,
Chief Manneh's Lawyer, Femi Falana with Messrs. Daniel Byron and
Akoto Amp
When the Court
resumed hearing on November 26, it further adjourned judgment on the
matter to November 28 after it had heard
testimonies from three
witnesses.
The Media Foundation for West
Africa (MFWA) filed a legal suit at the sub-regional court to compel the
government of President Yahya Jammeh to immediately release and produce
Manneh from arbitrary detention since July 2006.
In
the suit, Manneh sought a declaration that his arrest on July 11, 2006
is illegal and unlawful as it violates Article 6 of the African Charter,
which guarantees his right to personal liberty while his continued
detention since then also violates Articles 1, 4, 5 and 7 of the
Charter.
He
also asked the Court to make an order directing the Government of The
Gambia or its agents to immediately release him from custody and pay him
US$5 million as compensation for the violation of his rights to dignity,
personal liberty and fair hearing.
At the Court’s hearings on
July 16, 2007, the Gambian government failed to make an appearance and
and offered no explanation. The Community Court therefore adjourned the
case to September 26 to enable it duly serve the Gambian government for
the second time. The court confirmed that the Gambian government was
duly served with the hearing notice through its High Commission in
Abuja, Nigeria. Again, the government of Yahya Jammeh failed to appear.
In
September 2007, MFWA, the Accra-based regional freedom of expression
organization, instructed Mr. Femi Falana, a member of its Network of
Lawyers for the Defence of Journalists and President of the West African
Bar Association (WABA) to file a suit before the ECOWAS Court to compel
the government of President Yahya Jammeh to release Manneh from
custody.
At
the hearing of the case, Mr. Falana noted that the reasons for Manneh’s
arrest have not been disclosed by the Gambian authorities and that
efforts by his family, friends and lawyers to ascertain his whereabouts
or have access to him have been unsuccessful.
He
said Manneh had not been accused or charged with the commission of any
criminal offence but had nonetheless been held in solitary confinement
and denied access to adequate medical care since his arrest.
At the November 20
proceedings, which were observed by human rights lawyers from Ghana and
the United States, one of the three judges who heard the case was said
to have taken ill before the Court could put its judgment on the case
together. The Court said although the sick judge had been replaced under
Article 22 of the protocol establishing the Court, the new judge only
received the documents in the case that morning and so it was not
possible for him to make any contribution.
The Court therefore adjourned
the case to November 26 for a fresh hearing of the case. It directed
Manneh’s lawyers to present all necessary evidence on the matter on that
date.
Manneh, a reporter with the Banjul-based “Daily Observer” newspaper, was
arrested by two plain-clothes operatives of the notorious National
Intelligence Agency (NIA), at the newspaper’s premises on July 11, 2006
and has since been held incommunicado. His colleagues, human rights
organizations and freedom of expression advocates have expressed concern
over his safety following the repeated refusal of the Gambian
authorities to either release or charge him to court.
After his arrest, the
journalist was detained variously at the NIA Headquarters, Mile Two
Central Prisons, Kartong Police Station, Sibanor Police Station, Kuntaur
Police Station and then at Fatoto Police Station where he was spotted
after 188 days.
On July 26, Manneh was placed
under guard of personnel of both the Police Intervention Unit (PIU), (a
Para-military wing of the Gambian Police Force) and the Prison Service
at Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital (RVTH), the Gambia's main hospital,
while being treated for high blood pressure. Eye witnesses later
reported having seen him being transferred to a military clinic in
Banjul.
In reaction to the continuous
demands for the release of Manneh, the Gambia Police Force, after eight
months of the journalist’s disappearance, on 21 February 2007 officially
denied ever arresting him.
Meanwhile MFWA has filed
another suit at the ECOWAS Court against the Government of the Gambia
over a case of illegal detention and torture of journalist Musa
Saidykhan.
Saidykhan, editor-in-chief of
The Independent, a banned bi-weekly Banjul-based newspaper, is among
scores of victims who were illegally detained and suffered all manner of
cruelty including torture at the hands of President Yahya Jammeh’s
security agents in the aftermath of an alleged coup attempt in March
2006.
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