Intelligence Agents Interrogate Murdered Editor's Partner
Reporters sans Fronti鋨es (Paris)
PRESS RELEASE
March 22, 2005
Posted to the web March 23, 2005
RSF has voiced amazement after Pap Saine, co-owner of "The Point"
newspaper and partner of murdered journalist Deyda Hydara, was
interrogated on 17 March 2005 at the headquarters of the National
Intelligence Agency (NIA) in Banjul, as a suspect in Hydara's murder.
Saine was questioned at length about the newspaper's management and tax
situation.
"Deyda Hydara's killers are still at large, but the Gambian intelligence
services find nothing better to do than treat his partner with suspicion,"
RSF said.
"It is not just a waste of time, it is shameful to harass 'The Point"s co-
owner," the organisation continued. "We find this behaviour all the more
astounding as it is not the first time the security forces have gone
through ['The Point"s] files rather than following up on more obvious
leads. If they wanted to create a diversion or try to discourage Pap Saine
and push him into closing 'The Point', this would be the way to go about
it."
At about midday on 17 March, NIA agents went to the offices of "The Point"
to question Saine, but the journalist was not there. After being informed
of their visit, Saine went to NIA headquarters shortly after 2:00 p.m.
(local time), where he was interrogated for about an hour by three agents.
The agents asked him to produce various administrative documents,
including the newspaper's 1991 operating licence, the original of his
partnership agreement with Hydara's wife and his income tax statements.
They also asked him if he had had any arguments with Hydara, which he
vigorously denied. The agents demanded that he return the next day with
the administrative documents and that he ensure the company's pending
taxes were paid by the end of March.
In mid-January, the police had summoned Saine in a similar fashion and
interrogated him for an entire morning about the management of "The
Point", insisting that he produce bank statements. They said at the time
they were investigating the possibility that Hydara's murder had been
ordered by a Nigerian businessman - the newspaper's supplier - in an
alleged settling of scores. This theory was shown to be absurd when Saine
proved to the officers the supplier was in fact a Gambian.
BACKGROUND:
Hydara was shot dead at the wheel of his car on the night of 16 December
2004, as he was driving two of the newspaper's employees home. He was the
co-founder and co-editor of "The Point", a newspaper which is published
three times a week, as well as an Agence France-Presse (AFP) and RSF
correspondent. Hydara was also one of the most outspoken critics of two
draconian press laws that were passed by the Gambian parliament on the eve
of his murder.
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