A court in Central African Republic has jailed a newspaper editor for six months for an article accusing two ministers of improperly receiving money from a French company, a press watchdog group said on Tuesday.
Paris-based Reporters without Borders said lawyers for Faustin Bambou, editor of the privately owned weekly Les Collines de l'Oubangui, had appealed against the sentence handed down on Monday by a Bangui court. The state prosecutor had requested a two-year jail term and a heavy fine for the editor, who was found guilty of "inciting revolt, insults and libel". The court ordered him to pay symbolic damages of 1 CFA franc (a fifth of one US cent).
Bambou was arrested on January 11 during a public sector strike in the poor, landlocked former French colony by unions demanding the payment of months of arrears in civil servants' salaries.
He was charged over an article in his newspaper which accused two government ministers of having illegally received 7 billion CFA francs ($15.8 million) from the French nuclear group Areva, which took over a uranium mine in the country last year.
Reporters without Borders said the sentence contravened a decision in 2004 by Central African Republic's transitional parliament to repeal a law providing for jail terms for press offences. "Faustin Bambou is the victim of manoeuvres seeking to throw him in prison at whatever cost. The jailing of this journalist is a very worrying development for the state of law," the media freedom group said in a statement.
There was no immediate comment from Central African Republic authorities. Reporters without Borders had unsuccessfully lobbied for the charges against Bambou to be dropped or modified. Other private newspapers in Central African Republic halted publication for several days earlier this month to protest against Bambou's arrest. The continuing strike by unions has closed schools and disrupted other public services.
President Francois Bozize, who replaced his prime minister this month and named a largely unchanged new government on Monday, has warned the unions he will use the security forces to counter any public disorder or attempts to paralyse the country. Bozize seized power in a 2003 revolt and won elections held two years later.
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