Mohamed Guèye, publisher of Le Quotidien, and Alioune Badara Fall and Mamadou Seck, publisher and reporter respectively of L’Observateur, were charged and placed under court supervision on July 17, 2015.
Guèye was ordered to appear before the judge of the Sixth Investigation Bureau once a month for four months, while Fall and Seck must appear before the same judge every fortnight for four months.
The three were arrested and taken into police custody between July 14-15. After the case was sent to the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Public Prosector began a judicial enquiry, the journalists were transferred to the Dakar Central Police Station.
Fall and Seck were arrested for publishing an article on May 8, 2015, on the deployment of Senegalese soldiers to Saudi Arabia. Guèye was arrested for violating the confidentiality of investigations with his June 10, 2015 publication of the hearing of the case of Thione Seck, a Senegalese artist, who was remanded to custody for counterfeiting bank notes.
“These arrests have been condemned by Senegalese trade unionists who suspect [they are acts of] intimidation,” the MFWA’s correspondent in Senegal said. “Thus, the journalists’ union announced an application for authorisation to march in protest against these harassments and other forms of intimidation against Senegalese journalists.”
