Gambia: Detained Journalist released, charged with ''giving false information to a public servant”

The Banjul Magistrate Court on January 7, 2010 granted bail to Sulayman Saidy, a reporter with the Gambia News and Report, a privately-owned Banjul-based weekly magazine.

The journalist was arrested while working on January 6 and detained over night at a police station. He has since been charged with three counts of ''giving false information to a public servant”, “uttering false documents” and “altering a birth certificate''.

Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)’s sources reported that Saidy was granted bail in the sum of 100, 000 Dalasis (approximately 3,846 US$) with one surety. The court also confiscated his national identity card.

He was picked up by state security agents in the company of his colleagues at the Banjul International Airport. They had gone there to cover the departure of President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal after ending a two-day visit to the Gambia.

Saidy was whisked away in a vehicle with tinted glass and with no registration number and detained until he was rushed to court late in the afternoon about 1600 hours GMT.

The sources said the journalist until his appearance in court was not told of the reasons for his arrest and subsequent detention.  Saidy, who was without his legal counsel and has since pleaded not guilty to all the charges and is to reappear on January 21.         


- January 18, 2010 by Kwame Karikari, Media Foundation for West Africa
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Source: www.mediafound.org/index.php (accessed on 20.01.2010)