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“Tortured” Gambian journalist claims $2M from govt
Thursday, 03 June 2010 19:49
By Kemo ChamJournalist Musa Saidykhan is demanding the sum of $2M from the Gambian government for allegedly torturing him while in detention in the hands of the notoriously feared Gambian National Intelligence Agency, according to latest report from Abuja, where Saidykhan was testifying in the latest leg of the protracted case brought on his behalf by the Accra based Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA).
Mr Saidykhan, according to a report by the IC Publication, on Thursday told the ECOWAS court, which is hearing the case, that the Gambian government had violated his right to personal liberty and dignity. He demanded that the government be ordered by the regional court to pay him two million dollars in damages for the alleged torture over a story on one of a series of alleged coup the government announced in 2006.
The US-exiled journalist, like many other “threatened” journalists and opponents of the current Gambian government, first fled to neighboring Senegal when he was released from detention, before gaining asylum to the US.
"I'm seeking monetary compensation to the tune of two million dollars from the Gambian government for illegal detention, trial and torture," he was quoted by IC Publication.
As editor of the now banned The Independent newspaper in Gambia, Saidykhan was detained after his paper published names of suspected coupists arrested following the announcement of the March 2006 aborted coup. He claimed that he was handcuffed, stripped naked and subjected to electric shocks all over his genitals during the period. There are a lot of photos to show for that.
"As I speak right now, I have problem with my health and manhood," he reportedly told the court.
His story is not an isolated one.
Many journalists have been allegedly subjected to similar treatment in the hands of the NIA, whose members defy everything that concerns ethics in their handling of security issues (which most often means opponents of the regime).Already, the government has in its hand the case of the murder of celebrated journalist, Deyda Hydara, who was gunned down by still unknown assailants in 2004. Hydara was the editor of the independent newspaper The Point, and he also reported for Agence France-Presse (AFP).
There is also the case of Journalist Chief Ebrima Manneh, a reporter with the pro-government newspaper, the Daily Observer, detained on the orders of close allies of President Yahya Jammeh, who continues to deny knowledge of his continued enforced disappearance.
This very same regional court in Abuja have since ruled in favor of the detained journalist Manneh and demanded that the Gambian government released and compensated him. But the government is yet to honor that order.
Meanwhile, the present hearing in Abuja resumes on July 8.
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Comments
Kafuta, free your congested chest. The animorsity you harbour will just kill you. You decline to heed to my advice to repent and fine peace within yourself. The man you call an "idiot" is not aware of your existance, so only you are suffering.
issiso firring n'baading... dampal sa hol, mboka...
And I thought I told you to stop playing God too, judging what is real and fake. Allah is the judge of all.
Nata is making a salient point here; if that idiot of a brut that enjoys poeple calling him all those fake academic titles he has is true to himself, he should not be doing what he does. Above all if what he holds is actually a real Qur'an as he claims, he should have died since, cause he is not only anti-Islamic in all his actions, but he murderous tendencies sets him far apart from the real Muslim he portrays himself as... Hell, Jammeh, your day will surely come...God is for all of us...
Indeed...
So you are GOD to judge that the Holy Quran he holds is fake?
Allah judges all, be aware of that; and that when you point 1 finger, 4 fingers point back at you.
I am very afraid of the future of the Gambia. Imagine a country with such idiots who sees torture as something that is OK.
Let these idiots remember that the world is like a ball. Most of the people who tortured Musa to suit their evil desire are today buried 12 feet deep or languishing at the Mile Two prisons.
Musa, I salute you for your bravery. The regime in the Gambia can take our souls but they cannot kill our spirits.
Mola, you sound just like, so I for one am not at all astounded, and I am sure whoever know what the dictator is like, the murderer he is, will not be suppried either; so u go to hell and wait fo rthe day of reckoning...
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