Beninese journalist and women’s rights advocate Angela Kpeïdja faces a possible two-year prison sentence, including one year non-suspended, and a fine of one million CFA francs (approximately US$1,774) over two Facebook posts she published on December 7, 2025, the day of an attempted military coup in Benin.
The prosecution, brought under Article 550 of Benin’s Digital Code, a provision that international press freedom and rights organisations have repeatedly called on Benin to reform, raises serious concerns about the use of national security grounds to criminalise journalistic commentary.
The Special Prosecutor’s Office at the Court for the Repression of Economic Offences and Terrorism (CRIET) made the sentencing request on May 11, 2026, during closing arguments at the special court in Cotonou. Kpeïdja, who was not present at the hearing, was represented by her lawyers.
The charge against Kpeïdja is “harassment via an electronic system” under Article 550 of the Digital Code (Law No. 2017-20). The provision, which carries a maximum penalty of two years’ imprisonment, has been widely criticised for its broad wording and repeated use against journalists and online commentators. During Benin’s fourth Universal Periodic Review cycle, the government accepted recommendations to revise Article 550.
The two posts at the centre of the case were published while Kpeïdja was travelling abroad on the day of the attempted coup. In the first, she wrote: “Where is the one who usually leaks coup plots beforehand?” In the second, she asked: “Where is the Chief of Staff?”
The special prosecutor argued that the posts were “aggressive” and “deliberate” and were intended to humiliate national security authorities during a period of heightened tension. The prosecution further contended that Kpeïdja, as a journalist, had an obligation to verify information before publishing it and that she persisted in posting despite the public reaction to her first message.
Kpeïdja has defended her remarks. In a subsequent Facebook post, she explained that the expression “vendre la mèche” (to let the cat out of the bag) referred to the fact that the coup should have been detected and prevented long before it reached the scale it did. At an earlier hearing, she told the court she had been trying to understand the security situation in Benin from abroad.
On December 7, 2025, a group of soldiers led by Lt. Col. Pascal Tigri, identifying themselves as the Comité Militaire pour la Refondation (CMR), briefly seized control of national television and announced the overthrow of President Patrice Talon’s government. Loyalist forces, backed by Nigerian military intervention and ECOWAS regional support, repelled the mutineers within hours.
Gunfire was reported near the presidential residence in Cotonou. At least 14 people were arrested in connection with the attempt, though Tigri fled the country. Several judicial proceedings were subsequently opened before the CRIET.
Kpeïdja was detained by security forces on December 16, 2025, in connection with her posts. She was released two days later and ordered to appear before the CRIET without an arrest warrant. Her arrest formed part of a broader wave of detentions of journalists, activists and social media commentators in the aftermath of the coup attempt.
Angela Kpeïdja is a journalist at Benin’s state broadcaster, the Office de Radiodiffusion et Télévision du Bénin (ORTB), and a prominent advocate for women’s rights. She was already under significant legal pressure before the current case. On January 19, 2026, the CRIET convicted her in a separate case of electronic harassment brought by Stévy Wallace, a former digital communications official at the presidency. The court imposed a 24-month suspended prison sentence, a fine of one million CFA francs (approximately US$1,774), and ordered her to pay 20 million CFA francs (approximately US$35,480) in damages to Wallace.
At the May 11 hearing, the defence lawyers argued for outright acquittal. They challenged the legal basis of the proceedings, highlighted the absence of any civil party in the case, and argued that the posts amounted to legitimate questions posed during a period of national uncertainty, not criminal harassment.
The defence also stressed the importance of freedom of expression and the critical role of journalists in a democracy. The prosecution responded that the existence of a criminal offence is not contingent on the presence of a civil party. The court reserved its verdict for July 6, 2026.
The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) is concerned by the prosecution of Angela Kpeïdja and the broader pattern of using Benin’s Digital Code to criminalise journalistic expression. The charges against Kpeïdja, which rest on two rhetorical questions posted on social media, do not appear to meet the threshold of necessity and proportionality required under international human rights law for restrictions on freedom of expression.
The MFWA calls on the Beninese authorities to drop the charges against Kpeïdja. It further urges parliament to accelerate the reform of Article 550 of the Digital Code, in line with the government’s own commitments under the Universal Periodic Review, to ensure that the law is not used to silence journalists and public commentary on matters of national concern.
