Gambia : Minority leader asks the government to free reporter

Gambia UPDATE: Gambian’s minority leader asks the government to free Chief Ebrima Manneh

The Minority leader in The Gambian Parliament, Momodou Sanneh on July 3, 2008 called on the government of President Yahya Jammeh to respect the ECOWAS court ruling by releasing Chief Ebrima Manneh, a detained reporter of the Banjul-based privately-owned government-controlled newspaper.

The Daily Observer in its Friday, July 4 edition reported Sanneh as saying in a meeting between the Gambia Press Union (GPU) and the leadership of the Gambian National Assembly that the ECOWAS court had finished with Manneh’s case and that “it is now left to the government to deal with” the ECOWAS court’s order.

Following a suit filed by the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), the ECOWAS Court on June 5, ordered the Gambian government to immediately release Manneh and pay him US$100,000 as compensation for violating his human rights.

Despite this ruling the Gambian government is silent on the matter.

Meanwhile there is growing pressure from within the Gambia for the release of Manneh. His father has renewed his call for his son to be released without further delay. He said several efforts made by him to get the authorities to release his son have hit a snag.

At a press briefing to mark the second year of Manneh’s “disappearance”, the Network of Human Rights Journalists (NHRJ) condemned his continued detention and challenged the authorities to respect the Gambian Constitution.

“We are seriously concerned about the continued “disappearance” of our colleague, and are calling on the authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into the (matter) and ensure his immediate release”, said the NHRJ.

In a press statement on the matter the GPU lamented that “following a year long protracted court case in which the Government of The Gambia was served many notices and five security officials subpoenaed to appear before the Courts, Chief Manneh continued to languish in detention without any attempt by the state to conduct any investigation or appear before the ECOWAS Court to clear any doubts”.

Manneh has so far spent 732 days in detention without trial after his arrest on July 7, 2006 by two plainclothes agents of the notoriously feared National Intelligence Agency (NIA) in the presence of his colleagues.

MFWA’ sources say the then Managing Director of the Daily Observer, Sajal Taal masterminded his arrest.

Prof.Kwame Karikari
Executive Director
MFWA
Accra
Tel: 233 21 24 24 70
Fax : 233 21 221084
Website : www.mediafound.org
Email : [email][email protected]