Alagie Abdoulie Ceesay

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Alagie Abdoulie Ceesay or Alhagie Abdoulie Ceesay (* 1990 ) is a Gambian radio journalist .

Life

Ceesay was the managing director of the private Gambian radio station Teranga FM , based in Sinchu Alagie in the Kombo North district .

On January 1, 2015, after a failed coup attempt in the country , police arrested Ceesay and detained him overnight at Yundum Police Station before being released on bail the next day. He was instructed to report to the police on a daily basis, who did not charge him or provide an explanation for his questioning. The station Teranga FM resumed its operations on January 4th and, by order of the Gambian authorities, was only allowed to play music and had to cease all regular broadcasts, including the latest news.

Ceesay was arrested again on July 2, 2015 and held for twelve days without any contact with the outside world. Just a few days after his release, on July 17, he was arrested again and ill-treated by members of the Gambian security forces. After two weeks in solitary confinement without access to a lawyer or his family, Ceesay was brought before a local court on August 4, 2015, on a single charge of rioting. He was not given the opportunity to get bail. He was accused of distributing photos of Gambian President Yahya Jammeh with a gun pointed at him. On November 18, while the case was still pending in the district court, the state again brought seven riot indictments against the journalist. This charge was a mere duplication of the first charge in the Magistrate Court, with the exception of the "false news" charge. The original individual charge was later dropped.

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) and other civil society organizations issued several unsuccessful requests to the Gambian authorities to release Ceesay from Mile 2 . On March 3, 2016, the MFWA and 36 other freedom of expression organizations from across Africa and around the world petitioned the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights and the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Expression for President Jammeh to release Ceesay to ask. Also on March 31, 2016, two members of the U.S. Senate, Richard Joseph Durbin , a senior Senator from Illinois and Patrick Joseph Leahy , Senator from Vermont, wrote to President Jammeh to release Ceesay, who was at the time has been detained for over eight months.

While in custody, Ceesay was tortured and ill-treated, it is said - he was reportedly forced to drink cooking oil and knocked unconscious while in custody in July 2015. Admitted to the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital (WFSTH) several times before he escaped. He escaped from the hospital on April 20, 2016 (or: April 21, 2016) and fled to neighboring Senegal .

In 2016 he was sentenced in absentia to four years in prison by the Gambia Supreme Court . The court, which met on November 8, 2016, under the presidency of Judge Eunice O. Dada , sentenced Ceesay to one year imprisonment and a fine of 100,000 dalasi (approximately $ 2,290) on the first and second counts. On the third to sixth counts, the journalist was sentenced to one year in prison and a fine of 100,000 Dalasi. Counts one through six were double charges of sedition . Ceesay was sentenced to two years in prison on the seventh count, which charged him with false publication. The judgments are to be imposed simultaneously. Judge Dada noted in his ruling that if Ceesay fails to pay the fine he will have to serve two more years in prison and that an order will be served on the police to declare him a refugee and serve his sentence bring to. Ceesay is therefore arrested and sentenced to serve his sentence should he return to Gambia.

In March 2020, Ceesay is said to be in exile in Canada.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Torch: It's my client's right to be granted bail-lawyer defending radio journalist tells court. In: wordpress.com. September 10, 2015, accessed on July 18, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Sidi Sanneh: Sidi Sanneh: Alhagie Abdoulie Ceesay is still gravely ill as case is adjourned for the umpteenth time. In: blogspot.com. January 28, 2016, accessed July 18, 2020 .
  3. ^ David Perfect: Historical Dictionary of The Gambia . Rowman & Littlefield, 2016, ISBN 978-1-4422-6526-4 , pp. III, III ( books.google.de ).
  4. ↑ Gambia radio station censored, director harassed after foiled coup. In: cpj.org. January 8, 2015, accessed July 18, 2020 (American English).
  5. ↑ Gambia should disclose whereabouts of radio journalist. In: cpj.org. July 9, 2015, Retrieved July 18, 2020 (American English).
  6. ↑ Gambian journalist abducted again, days after he was freed. In: cpj.org. July 21, 2015, Retrieved July 18, 2020 (American English).
  7. ↑ CPJ calls on the Gambia to free journalist, drop charges against him. In: cpj.org. August 11, 2015. Retrieved July 18, 2020 (American English).
  8. ↑ Radio director rearrested, held incommunicado. (PDF) In: amnesty.org. July 24, 2015, accessed on July 18, 2020 .
  9. ↑ a b c d e Gambian journalist and torture survivor Alhagie Abdoulie Ceesay sentenced to prison in absentia. In: ifex.org. IFEX, November 10, 2016, accessed July 18, 2020 (American English).
  10. ↑ Opinion No.50 / 2015concerningAlhagie Abdoulie Ceesay (The Gambia). (PDF) Human Rights Council, Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, December 16, 2015, accessed July 18, 2020 .
  11. ↑ a b Gambia should free ailing, arbitrarily detained journalist. In: cpj.org. March 9, 2016, Retrieved July 18, 2020 (American English).
  12. ↑ Ex-BBC reporter: I was tortured in The Gambia . In: BBC News . October 25, 2018 ( bbc.com ).
  13. ↑ a b Gambian journalist sentenced to two years in prison. In: cpj.org. November 23, 2016. Retrieved July 18, 2020 (American English).
  14. ↑ 'Wanted Taranga FM boss in Senegal' - The Standard Newspaper. (No longer available online.) In: standard.gm. April 25, 2016, archived from the original on July 3, 2017 ; accessed on July 18, 2020 .
  15. ^ Journalist Abdoulie Ceesay Escaped, Prison Officer Tells Court. In: foroyaa.net. Foroyaa Newspaper, April 22, 2016, accessed July 18, 2020 (American English).
  16. ↑ Saja: Details emerging on Alagie Ceesay escape from hospital bed. In: whatson-gambia.com. www.whatson-gambia.com, March 10, 2020, accessed July 18, 2020 (UK English).
personal data
SURNAME Ceesay, Alagie Abdoulie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ceesay, Alhagie Abdoulie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Gambian radio journalist
DATE OF BIRTH 1990