DJIBOUTI: newspaper editor re-arrested

IFEX - News from the international freedom of expression community
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ALERT UPDATE - DJIBOUTI

9 June 2003

Newspaper editor Daher Ahmed Farah re-arrested just two days after his
release from custody

SOURCE: Reporters sans frontières (RSF), Paris

**Updates IFEX alerts of 4 June, 28 and 6 May and 23 April 2003**

(RSF/IFEX) - RSF has protested against the re-arrest of newspaper editor
Daher Ahmed Farah on 5 June 2003, just two days after his release from
custody. The organisation has called on the authorities to release him
immediately. The editor of "Le Renouveau" newspaper and head of the
opposition party Movement for Democratic Renewal and Development (MRD),
Farah is the subject of several libel suits filed by the armed forces.

"Although he was placed back in custody for a different matter from the one
for which he was previously released, we are outraged by this utterly
unjustified decision," RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard said in a letter
to State Prosecutor Djama Souleiman Ali. "Farah was simply exercising his
right to inform the public, a right guaranteed by several international
treaties ratified by the Republic of Djibouti," Ménard noted.

In his letter to the state prosecutor, Ménard referred to the opinion of
Stéphane Zerbib, a lawyer hired by RSF to defend Farah because no lawyer in
Djibouti was willing to take the case. Zerbib said Farah's re-arrest was all
the more unjustified since General Zakaria Cheik Ibrahim, the army's chief
of staff, had offered to withdraw his lawsuit in return for a letter of
apology. Farah declined, but, as Ménard noted, if the editor could have
avoided prosecution simply by apologising, imprisonment seems even more
disproportionate to the wrong Zakaria claims to have suffered.

Ménard also reminded the state prosecutor that the United Nations condemns
imprisonment for the peaceful expression of an opinion and views it as a
serious human rights violation.

On 28 May, the Appeal Court reduced the sentence that had been passed on 7
April in one of Zakaria's libel suits against Farah, over a 6 March article
accusing the army high command of carrying out politically-motivated
dismissals. However, the court's decision is still a very heavy sentence for
a press crime, namely a four-month suspended prison sentence and 500,000
Djibouti francs (approx. US$2,800; 2,400 euros) in damages. Farah was
originally handed a six-month suspended prison sentence and ordered to pay a
fine of 200,000 Djibouti francs (approx. US$1,200; 1,000 euros) and 2
million Djibouti francs (approx. US$11,800; 10,000 euros) in damages.

"Le Renouveau" criticised the army again on 17 April, accusing it of lacking
"neutrality" and saying it "should be apolitical." As a result, Farah was
arrested three days later, but he requested a provisional release and it was
finally granted by the investigating judge on 3 June.

The prosecutor appealed against the release, obtaining an order for Farah's
re-arrest. This was carried out on the morning of 5 June by criminal
investigation and special affairs police who detained him at his mother's
home, where he had spent the night. They took him to Gabode prison, where he
had earlier been held in appalling conditions.

Farah has also been prosecuted for "undermining the army's morale" as a
result of a complaint by another general and the Defence Ministry. His
appeal against his six-month suspended prison sentence and 200,000 Djibouti
franc fine in the case has not yet been heard.

The editor has been detained several times over the past few years. In most
cases, he was prosecuted for press offences and sentenced to prison terms or
fines.

For further information, contact Jean-François Julliard at RSF, rue Geoffroy
Marie, Paris 75009, France, tel: +33 1 44 83 84 84, fax: +33 1 45 23 11 51,
e-mail: [email protected], Internet: http://www.rsf.org

The information contained in this alert update is the sole responsibility of
RSF. In citing this material for broadcast or publication, please credit
RSF.
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