Less than a week after being released on bail following a hunger strike, Pape Ale Niang was ordered by a Senegalese court to be locked up once more, according to his lawyer.
Moussa Sarr, one of his attorneys, claimed that Pape Ale Niang had been detained once more overnight and had appeared before a judge in Dakar on Tuesday.
By discussing his case with a Senegalese activist who lives overseas on social media on Monday, according to the prosecution, Niang violated the terms of his release, Sarr said.
“The ruling granting provisional freedom under judicial oversight was rescinded,” Sarr said the court did. “He’s returning to jail.”
Niang, the editor-in-chief of the online newspaper Dakar Matin, is well-known in Senegal for his frequent editorials on current events.
After he wrote about Ousmane Sonko, the head of the country’s largest opposition, being accused of rape, the case against him developed.
According to labor unions, he is accused of divulging private information regarding the security plans for Sonko’s interview with investigators on November 3.
Niang has also been accused of “publishing fake news intended to throw public institutions into discredit” and of “getting administrative and military documents.”
By discussing his case with a Senegalese activist who lives overseas on social media on Monday, according to the prosecution, Niang violated the terms of his release, Sarr said.
He said, without going into any detail, that they are also referring to a “tweet about the head of police.”
The press, civil society organizations, and Senegal’s opposition all expressed outrage at his detention and demanded his release.
In unstable West Africa, Senegal has a solid reputation for openness and journalistic freedom, but Reporters Without Borders claims that this image is deteriorating.
Senegal dropped 24 places from its 2021 ranking to 73rd position in its 2022 Press Freedom Index, which evaluated 180 nations.