Journalists face death penalty
22/12/2007 19:23  - (SA)  

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Niger to try French reporters Torture charges for Niger army Reporters 'defied ban'

Niamey - Two French pressmen arrested in Niger while working for the Franco-German TV station Arte could face the death penalty after being charged with "intelligence" with a Tuareg rebel group.

Their lawyer said on Saturday that the charges levelled against journalist Thomas Dandois and cameraman Pierre Creisson were "a serious setback for liberty and the rule of law".

They were formally accused on Friday of "intelligence with armed groups," after allegedly ignoring a ban on journalists visiting the restive north of the country to interview leaders of the Movement of Niger People for Justice (MNJ).

Lawyer Moussa Coulibaly, who also represents two local journalists accused of links with the MNJ, said: "To my knowledge, no legal action has been taken against (the group's leaders), but anyone who has even remote contact with them is prosecuted for the most serious crimes."

Movements monitored

Coulibaly said the case could take "a long time" to come to trial.

Journalists rights group Reporters sans Frontieres (Reporters without Borders - RSF) also condemned the charges, and called for Dandois and Creisson to be freed.

The north has been strictly off-limits to both local and foreign journalists since August, when the army was given enhanced powers to deal with the rebellion.

Government spokesperson and Communications Minister Mohamed Ben Omar said on Friday the pair had gone to the town of Tanout, in the north of the Zinder region, from where they had been taken to MNJ headquarters in the Air mountains.

He said they had been allowed into Niger to report on a bird flu epidemic in the south of the country, but had then gone to the north, unaware that their movements had been monitored.

Their film, which had been confiscated, showed leaders of the "armed bandits" of the MNJ and was aimed at spreading propaganda on their behalf in Europe, Ben Omar said.

The French foreign ministry said that a diplomat from its consulate in Niamey had been able to visit the detained men on Thursday.

- AFP

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