Senegal: Journalist jailed for “contempt of courtroom and spreading false information

A journalist from a non-public Senegalese tv station was charged with “contempt of courtroom” and “spreading false information” and jailed Tuesday evening, AFP discovered Wednesday from his lawyer.

Pape Ndiaye, a columnist for Wal Fadjri, had lately questioned the independence of the judiciary within the January 18 referral to a legal chamber of the opponent Ousmane Sonko, accused of rape by an worker of a magnificence salon.

The journalist had claimed that almost all of the judges of the general public prosecutor’s workplace had determined in favor of dismissing Mr. Sonko’s case, in opposition to the recommendation, in keeping with him, of the general public prosecutor who instructed them to satisfy the federal government’s want for a trial of the opponent.

“The knowledge (on the indictment and imprisonment of Pape Ndiaye) is correct,” Moussa Sarr, his lawyer, instructed AFP on Wednesday, confirming info offered by the Coordination of Press Associations (CAP), a commerce union confederation.

The fees in opposition to the journalist are “provocation of a gathering, contempt of courtroom, intimidation, and reprisals in opposition to a member of the judiciary, discrediting a judicial act, dissemination of false information, endangering the lives of others,” in keeping with Mr. Sarr.

The Sonko case has been a supply of pressure for no less than two years in Senegal. The opponent was charged with rape and dying threats and positioned beneath judicial supervision in March 2021, on the grievance of the worker of the wonder salon the place he was getting a therapeutic massage.

He denounced a plot by the federal government to torpedo his candidacy for the 2024 presidential elections.

Pape Ndiaye is the second journalist to be imprisoned in current months in Senegal after Pape Alé Niang.

This journalist from the information web site Dakar matin, a critic of the federal government, was arrested twice in November and December for, amongst different issues, “disclosing info prone to hurt the nationwide protection” and “spreading false information”, additionally across the Sonko case. He has since been positioned beneath judicial supervision.

Senegal is ranked 73rd (out of 180) within the 2022 version of the world press freedom index compiled by the journalists’ rights group Reporters With out Borders (RSF).