Gambian journalist arrested
2009-06-25 14:43
Banjul - A Gambian journalist has been arrested for taking photographs of people attending a large media trial in the west African country, police and his wife said on Wednesday.
Augustine Kanjia, who works for the independent daily The Point, was taken in by police on Monday during the trial of several colleagues from his newspaper and an opposition paper, Foroyaa.
"All my life has been disturbed due to this unending arrest and detention of journalists. My husband has been detained for three days now without being released, which is a gross violation of his rights," Kanjia's wife Theresa Johnson said.
Fellow journalists on Wednesday went to visit Kanjia at the police station in Serrekunda, close to Banjul, but his lawyer, Assan Martin, said all efforts to obtain bail for him had failed.
"I was told by the police that they are still investigating the matter," Martin said.
On Monday, a packed court heard the case of seven journalists from The Point and Foroyaa who are accused of sedition because both their newspapers carried a statement from the Gambia Press Union (GPU) criticising President Yahya Jammeh.
The six men and a woman were freed on bail.
Provocative and inappropriate
Gambian authorities have declined to make any comment on Kanjia's arrest for taking pictures at the trial.
On June 8, Jammeh said in a state television interview that the government had "no stake" in the 2004 murder of journalist Deyda Hydara and rebuffed persistent speculation of high-level involvement in the killing.
Jammeh instead hinted that the investigative journalist's love life had led to the murder by unidentified gunmen in his car.
The GPU reacted in a statement that called the president's comments "provocative" and inappropriate, amounting to "character assassination."
Hydara founded The Point and was also a correspondent for AFP and the press watchdog group Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF - Reporters Without Borders), which has recently revived "serious suspicions regarding the responsibility of the Gambian security services" in the killing.
The ambassadors of the United States and Britain attended Monday's court hearing in the Serrekunda suburb of Kanifing, which was surrounded by armed security men.
- SAPA