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Gambian Journalist Charged With Treason
Tuesday, 19 July 2011 19:04
(AFP) - Prosecutors on Tuesday charged the former president of the Gambia Press Union with treason for attempting
to overthrow the government of President Yahya Jammeh.Ndey Tapha Sosseh, who was the chief of the media body until his replacement last month, is currently living in exile in Mali.
She will stand trial along with former communications minister Amadou Janneh, a US national, and others for "conspiring among themselves to carry out an enterprise with force with the intent to usurp the executive powers of the state," according to the charges.
Janneh, who appeared in court on Tuesday with three others after his arrest on June 7, denied the charges but was remanded in custody.
Like Janneh, Sosseh faces charges that "on or about the month of May 2011, she conspired with others to distribute T-shirts bearing 'Coalition for Change The Gambia, End to Dictatorship Now' with intent to usurp the executive powers of the state."
Jammeh is regularly criticised by human rights groups for ongoing human rights abuses, a crackdown on reporters and climate of fear.
The 46-year-old has in the past booted two UN officials out of the country and threatened to kill those who attempted to "destabilise" the country by working with "so-called defenders of human rights."
Amnesty International, in a report to the United Nations in 2010, said a government crackdown on press freedom had seen about 29 journalists flee the country since 1994, more than half in the previous two years.
In December 2004 Deyda Hydara, the editor of independent newspaper The Point and Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondent was gunned down by unidentified gunmen in his car.
Six other journalists have been missing for years.
Gambia will hold elections on November 24 and Jammeh has said his victory is "a foregone conclusion".
The country known as the "Smiling Coast" to the European tourists drawn to its palm-fringed beaches, celebrates 17 years since Jammeh took power in a bloodless coup on Friday.
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Comments
"I must stop this now - I sound like a Daily Observer editor"
That's a promise!
("Tarzan" Scales can return safely now - the coast is clear
Jammeh DOES ACCEPT that ANYONE can run against him for President. He just thinks that none of them has ANY HOPE of beating him (A bit like Muhammad Ali boasting that he would take his opponents in "Round five if you continue with that jive"!). BUT LET ME ASK YOU THIS: Is it Jammeh's job to make it easy for the Opposition to beat him? Look how BRUTALLY Obama dispatched that Trump guy. The Gambian Opposition's only hope is a completely UNIFIED OPPOSITION - and Jammeh will do all he can to keep them divided. I must stop this now - I sound like a Daily Observer editor
My brother don’t let me down because am beginning to understand and like you. You have already said that “even if they seem to be dangerous & irresponsible sometimes”. Why then waste your time on reading something that you even know calls for catastrophic scenes? I know one is entirely entitle to your freedom of expression but the one that lacks responsibility should be condemned. We should agree when necessary but defending the defendable is just widening our differences more.
But he is just a PRIVATE CITIZEN and entirely entitled to his views,no matter how unpleasant they may be. And as a Gambian citizen,he has the right to criticise & question the actions of Yaya Jammeh,a PUBLIC OFFICIAL or even call for his removal from office,through legitimate means.
Personally,my BEEF is with PUBLIC OFFICIALS & THOSE WHO SEEK PUBLIC OFFICE OR DEFEND THE INDEFENSIBLE ACTIONS OF PUBLIC OFFICIALS.
For me,Mathew does not fall into that category and does not require our attention (too much).
This caricature of opposition leaders is nothing new & doesn't bother me. What bothers me is that after 17yrs in power,Jammeh has yet to come to terms with the fact that The Gambia is a MULTI-PARTY DEMOCRACY and therefore citizens have the CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO SEEK POLITICAL OFFICE AT ALL LEVELS.
Any politician or would be politician who cannot accept the right of citizens to run for political office in a multi-party democratic system should have no right to seek political office.
Jammeh should simply step aside if he is tired of elections. Gambians,am sure,will never be tired of elections till the end of times,unless they want to surrender their sovereignty.
Absolutely ML, Matthew K Jallow is EXTREMELY well-read but does that make one "intelligent"? There is another Ethiopian proverb which goes something like this: "I prefer a donkey that will get me home safely to a fast wild horse that may throw me off and kill me". It was Karl Marx who said that "Philosophers have only described the world, but what matters is to change the world". Matthew can rant as much as he wants from Wisconsin but he ain't changing nothing in The Gambia. But the British nurse (just an ordinary nurse) who worked hard in England to equip Bansang Hospital with a Blood Bank changed a lot. She knows zero about Fanon, Sankara, etc. and she only completed secondary schooling before doing a nursing course. I consider her far more intelligent, and her intelligence far more USEFUL, than Matthew K Jallow's. God Bless the Nurse!
I think you have seen my point and just as you have said people are teaming up with the wrong people. Fatou Jaw Manneh is my senior and I have great respect for her. For Mathew, no one is more intelligent than him, no one knows more than him and he considers himself a hero inside a hole. He has been having locker horns with everyone and this is not the type of person we need. He is more than “Sataan” and anyone getting closer to this man am only concluding you as a looser and having your future in jeopardy.
"#74 Mike Scales 2011-07-24 16:16 I know Your opinions very well my friend. This is why I knew you would like the opportunity to speak them for yourself".
1. Why ask if you ALREADY knew?
2. Why do you ASSUME that I want to REPEAT the obvious to intelligent readers?
Come to think of it, you don't need to answer Mr. Scales since this bantaba has sussed you out already!
This is why I knew you would like the opportunity to speak them for yourself.
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