CAR editor jailed for libel
2008-01-28 21:07
Bangui - The managing editor of a news weekly in the Central African Republic, Faustin Bambou, was jailed on Monday for six months on conviction of libelling two government ministers he accused of corruption.
A court in Bangui also found Bambou, who runs Les Collines de l'Oubangui (The Oubangui Hills), guilty of "incitement to rebellion" and insulting the two ministers, whom his paper alleged were paid large sums of money by French nuclear group Areva.
He was ordered to pay one symbolic CFA franc to the ministers in damages and interest, but the court rejected the prosecutor's call for a two-year jail term and a three million-CFA franc fine.
"This verdict is a setback for justice in Central Africa and does no honour to the nation," Bambou said before being led back to the capital's central Ngaraba jail.
His lawyers immediately lodged an appeal.
In his article, Bambou asserted that the two ministers were paid seven billion CFA francs by Areva, which in July 2007 acquired uranium mining rights at Bakouma in the northeast of the deeply poor country.
On January 21, Bambou told a court hearing broadcast live on national radio: "I take responsibility for my article. It was me who carried out the research to publish this article."
Police arrested Bambou on January 11 and he was initially charged three days later with public order offences because authorities connected his article to a civil service strike over pay arrears and accused him of prolonging it, a judicial source said.
This allegation has been rejected as nonsense by the national journalists' union, while other newspapers in the country ceased to publish between January 17 and 22 to show their solidarity with Bambou.
They reappeared on newsstands a day after the appointment of new Prime Minister Faustin-Archange Touadera, whose predecessor quit in the face of the strike.
Government employees walked out at the beginning of the year and have yet to return to work. They have demanded six months' worth of wage arrears, not to speak of backpay owed to many of them by previous regimes.
- SAPA