Fan Jianping, Jin Naiyi, Beijing Ribao
Imprisoned: 1989
Fan, an editor at Beijing Ribao (Beijing Daily), and Jin, a
journalist for the same newspaper, were arrested sometime after the June
4, 1989, Tiananmen Square crackdown.
Li Jian, Wenyi Bao
Imprisoned: July 1989
Li, a journalist with Wenyi Bao (Literature and Arts News),
was arrested sometime after the June 4, 1989, Tiananmen Square crackdown.
Yang Hong, Zhongguo Qingnian Bao
Imprisoned: June 13, 1989
Yang, a reporter for Zhongguo Qingnian Bao (China Youth News),
was arrested in Kunming and charged with circulating "rumormongering leaflets"
and protesting against corruption.
Yu Zhongmin, Fazhi Yuekan
Imprisoned: 1989
Yu, a journalist with Fazhi Yuekan (Law Monthly) in Shanghai,
was arrested sometime after the June 4, 1989, Tiananmen Square crackdown.
He was later described in an article in Wenhui Daily as an "agitator"
of the Shanghai student demonstrations.
Shang Ziwen, Sun Liyong
Arrested: 1991
Shang, a cadre at Thorough Transport Corporation and a major member
of the group producing the underground magazine Zhong Sheng (The
Sound of the Bell), was sentenced to six years in prison. Sun, the founder
of Zhong Sheng, was sentenced to seven years imprisonment. Both
were convicted of "counter-revolution" for publishing Zhong Sheng.
Shang’s prison term was expected to end in 1997. Sun is expected to be
released in 1998, although CPJ was not able to obtain evidence that either
had been released.
Democratic
Republic of Congo
(formerly Zaire)
(4)
Mukalayi Mulongo, OZRT-Shaba
Kabemba wa Yulu, OZRT-Shaba
Imprisoned: May 19, 1995
Lubumbashi security service officers arrested Mulongo, the program
director of the state-owned radio station OZRT and wa Yulu, a journalist
with the station. Mulongo was arrested for granting the president of the
Shaba province branch of the Union of Independent Republicans Party (UFERI)
the right to respond to statements made by the national UFERI president.
CPJ has been unable to confirm his status since Mobutu’s regime was ousted
on May 17, 1997, by Laurent Kabila.
Jean Muadianvita, free-lancer
Imprisoned: January 23, 1997
Muadianvita, a free-lance journalist for the independent newspapers
La Tempete des Tropiques, Umoja, and L’Example, was
arrested at his home in Mont Ngafula, a county of Kinshasa, by soldiers
of the Military Action and Intelligence Service (SARM) on the orders of
General Bolozei Ngbudu. Muadianvita was transported to SARM headquarters
at Kitambo in Kinshasa, where he is being held incommunicado.
On the same day, SARM soldiers returned with Muadianvita
to his home to search for documents. After the search, he was transported
back to SARM headquarters, which was controlled by a Major Boyombo.
Muadianvita’s arrest was in connection with a series
of articles published in November 1996 about President Mobutu’s U.S.-based
political lobbyists. The articles reported that the lobbyists were paid
to maintain a foreign network that was acting to keep then-President Mobutu
in power. Muadianvita published a list of these lobbyists, detaling how
much Mobutu had paid each for their services.
Muadianvita’s attorney was denied access to his
client after he was taken into custody, and SARM has refused to send the
journalist to court because he will not reveal his sources for the articles.
On January 30, CPJ wrote a letter to then-Prime
Minister Kengo wa Dondo, protesting the incommunicado arrest of Muadianvita.
CPJ has been unable to confirm the journalist’s
whereabouts since Mobutu was ousted by Laurent Kabila on May 17.
Nepa Bagili Mutita, La Voix de L’Islam
Imprisoned: February 11, 1997
Mutita was arrested on February 11 on charges of spreading false rumors
about the civil war and faced up to three years in jail. The journalist,
who was also president of the Mouvement National Congolais-Lumumba, had
published in his monthly La Voix de l’Islam a list of people wanted
by then-rebel leader Laurent Kabila. The list included the names of the
president and the prime minister. CPJ has been unable to confirm his whereabouts
since Kabila came to power on May 17.
Ethiopia (3)
Melese, Kayete
Imprisoned: September 3, 1997
CPJ has been unable to determine whether Melese is still in prison.
Andualem Mohammed, Tame Feker
Imprisoned: September 3, 1997
CPJ has been unable to determine whether Mohammed is still in prison.
Getachew Teffera, Agere
Imprisoned: September 3, 1997
CPJ has been unable to determine whether Teffera is still in prison.
Guinea (2)
Ousmane Camara, L’Oeil
Imprisoned: August 1, 1997
L’Oeil publications director Camara, and editor in chief Louis
Celestin, were arrested and detained, charged with "spreading false information
and defamation" after Justice Minister Maurice Zogbelemou Togba lodged
a complaint. The June 25 and July 2 editions of l’Oeil contained
criticism of Togba.
On August 4, the journalists appeared in court for
preliminary questioning. Although the court granted them an official release
on August 6, Camara and Celestin remained in jail. Celestin was later released
and began to work again, but was expelled from Guinea to the Ivory Coast
on December 22 after writing an article on an opposition press conference.
Camara’s whereabouts are unknown.
Foday Fofana, L’Independant
Imprisoned: October 13, 1997
Fofana, a reporter with the weekly paper L’Independant, was
arrested at the Alpha Yaya military camp in Conakry. Fofana had gone there
to interview the camp’s associate commander in connection with reports
that the commander was behind several assaults on a civilian. When Fofana
stated the reason for his visit, he was charged with "gathering information
on behalf of a foreign
power." Police transported Fofana to police headquarters, where he
was held for a month, before moving him to the central detention facility.
Other charges brought against Fofana include "attempting to threaten the
security of the State," "falsehood and use of deception," and "attempting
to usurp in name and deed."
Nigeria (1)
Babatunji Wusu, TheNews
Imprisoned: September 17, 1997
Security operatives who presented themselves as Federal Intelligence
and Investigation Bureau officers arrested Wusu, an administrator with
TheNews, at the magazine’s editorial office in Lagos. The men were
unable to find the editors they were seeking, so they arrested Wusu instead
and took him to their Ikoyi office. The action appears to have been in
connection with an article published in the September 15 issue of TheNews
titled, "Panic Over Abacha’s Illness." CPJ has been unable to confirm Wusu’s
whereabouts.
Sierra Leone (1)
Suliman Janger, New Tablet
Imprisoned: July 28, 1997
Janger, production manager of the New Tablet newspaper, was
arrested while he was distributing the newspaper’s second edition. The
soldiers who detained him also seized about 900 copies. Five unidentified
newspaper vendors were also arrested along with Janger.
Turkey
(13)
(+ = Charges and convictions suspended under the government’s August
14, 1997, limited amnesty for editors.)
Bektas Cansever, Devrimci Çözüm
Imprisoned: December 26, 1993
CPJ believes that Cansever may have been prosecuted and imprisoned
as a result of his affiliation with Devrimci Çözüm.
He was taken into custody in Istanbul and subsequently charged under Article
168/2 of the Penal Code with membership in the outlawed organization Dev
Sol.
The Ministry of Justice informed CPJ that "Mr. Bektas
Cansever, whose alias was Yusuf Yilmaz, was taken into custody on December
26, 1993. During a physical body search, police found an unauthorized pistol
on Mr. Cansever. Like the CPJ states, it was also found that Mr. Cansever
was also a member of Dev Sol, an outlawed leftist organization categorized
as such in the annual U.S. State Department’s Patterns of Global Terrorism
report."
Prosecution documents show that Cansever was accused
of hanging banners in public, throwing Molotov cocktails in Izmir in 1991,
and other Molotov cocktail incidents. The prosecution claimed that Dev
Sol had sent Cansever to Istanbul in 1992 in order to elude capture, and
that he then began working for Devrimici Çözüm.
The state alleged that at the time of his arrest, police found in his possession
a gun, two counterfeit I.D.s, and a handwritten document outlining Dev
Sol’s organizational structure. Three people were said to have made statements
incriminating him—but there was no record of their statements in the court
documents.
According to court documents, Cansever admitted
throwing a Molotov cocktail in Istanbul.
Cansever was convicted on April 10, 1997, and sentenced
to more than 24 years in jail. He is in Gebze Prison.
Kemal Topalak, Devrimci Çözüm
Imprisoned: December 26, 1993
CPJ believes that Topalak may have been prosecuted for his work as
a reporter for Devrimci Çözüm.
Court documents indicate that Topolak was detained
in a coffee shop and was found to be carrying a counterfeit I.D., which
prosecutors said had been acquired in Switzerland through Dev Sol. He was
charged under Article 168 of the Penal Code with membership in the outlawed
Dev Sol organization.
Police searched Topolak’s house, where they found
copies of Devrimci Çözüm and sketches of a hammer
and sickle as well as documents allegedly handwritten by Topolak, which
the prosecution said linked him and his wife to Dev Sol, for which he allegedly
served as a courier. Police said they had statements incriminating Topalak
as a Dev Sol member. Topalak admitted to the charges while in police custody
but denied them in court. The prosecution alleged that Topolak had visited
Damascus "for bomb and gun training," and that he had two guns in his possession
upon arrest.
In his defense, Topolak admitted to having false
identification, which he said he procured in Switzerland after losing his
real one, but denied receiving the I.D. from Dev Sol. His lawyer said the
state’s case relied upon testimony coerced from Topolak under torture during
an interrogation at police headquarters. He believes that his client was
prosecuted because he is a journalist.
The Ministry of Justice responded to CPJ’s request
for information by stating that Topolak had been taken into custody with
Bektas Cansever on December 26, 1993: "It was discovered that Mr. Topolak
was a member of the illegal leftist organization Dev Sol. Hence, like CPJ
reports, he was charged under Article 168/2 of the Penal Code with being
a member of an outlawed organization and sentenced to prison. He is in
Gebze Prison." Topolak is serving a sentence of 12 years and six months.
Ibrahim Özen, Devrimci Çözüm
Imprisoned: December 28, 1993
CPJ believes that Özen may have been prosecuted and imprisoned
because of a crackdown on Devrimci Çözüm, which
he owned. He was taken into custody during a police raid on his home in
Istanbul and charged with violating Articles 5 and 7/2 of the Anti-Terror
Law (aid and propaganda for a terrorist organization) and Article 312/2
of the Penal Code (inciting racial hatred). He is serving a 12-year sentence
in Gebze Prison in Istanbul.
The defense argued that Devrimci Çözüm
was a legal publication, and that the authorities would have rejected Özen’s
application to publish the magazine had he been affiliated with any outlawed
organization. Özen’s lawyer said his client had committed no crime.
The Ministry of Justice responded to CPJ’s request
for information saying: "As a result of exhaustive investigations, certain
members of [Dev Sol] and some terrorists acting on its behalf were apprehended.
From their testimony, it was discovered that Mr. Ibrahim Özen was
a member of the organization and acted on its behalf. In the search of
his hideout [sic], an unauthorized arm was found. Like CPJ reports, Mr.
Özen, like Bektas Cansever and Kemal Topalak, who were members of
the same organization, was arrested by the State Security Court for being
a member of an outlawed organization. Ibrahim Özen was convicted under
Penal Code Article 168/2 and is currently serving time at Gebze Prison."
Court documents from Özen’s trial state that
he was detained during a police raid on his home—the "hideout" referred
to above. He was convicted of membership in Dev Sol and Dev Genc, another
outlawed organization, in violation of Article 168 of the Penal Code. Based
on witness testimony, the prosecution said that Özen traveled to the
Bekaa Valley in Lebanon and sent other members there as well. He is also
accused of providing written instructions to other alleged Dev Sol members
and using the magazine’s office on behalf of the organizations. According
to the court documents, he confessed to the charges against him in police
custody but later recanted. His lawyers argued in court that he was tortured.
They asserted that the prosecution had no concrete evidence to support
its claims.
Hanim Harman, Mücadele
Imprisoned: January 19, 1994
Harman, a reporter in Malatya for Mücadele, was detained
and accused of membership in the banned organization Dev Sol. CPJ believes
that Harman may have been prosecuted for her work as a journalist and as
part of a state campaign of harassment against Mücadele. She
was sentenced on May 2, 1995, to 12 years and six months in jail.
Court documents obtained in December 1997 said that
the prosecution accused Harman of communicating with members of Dev Sol,
providing them with information about the police, and reporting to her
superiors. The state said Harman had interrogated a Dev Sol defector.
In her defense, Harman cited her work as a correspondent
for Mücadele in Malatya and denied all the charges against
her. She is in Sakarya Prison.
Nuray Gezici, Yoksul Halkin Gücü
Imprisoned: April 16, 1994
Gezici, a reporter for Yoksul Halkin Gücü, was arrested
and is currently serving a 15-year prison term in Ankara Closed Prison.
Transcripts of her trial show she was charged with membership in the Revolutionary
People’s Liberation Party-Front.
Gezici was detained in Ankara while exiting a taxi
with two other people. Police claimed she was on her way to the meeting
house of an illegal organization. Police said Gezici was carrying copies
of Kurtulus and unspecified "left wing books."
The state asserted that Gezici’s presence at a ceremony
commemorating Turkish revolutionaries who had been killed by security forces
in the 1960s and 1970s was evidence of membership in the outlawed group.
Gezici said that she had attended the ceremony in her capacity as a journalist.
She was also accused of having thrown two Molotov cocktails at an Ankara
bank on March 29, 1993, and of having hung two Dev Sol flags in public
on April 16, 1993. The prosecution claimed that Gezici had previously confessed
to throwing Molotov cocktails, but Gezici testified that her confession
had been extracted under torture by police and subsequently denied participating
in the attack.
Mustafa Çoskun, Partizan Sesi
Imprisoned: May 25, 1994, Released: October 25, 1994 [?]
CPJ first reported this case in March 1996, stating that Çoskun,
Elazig bureau chief of the leftist monthly Partizan Sesi, was arrested
and charged with being a member of an outlawed organization and was being
held in Elazig Prison. Çoskun was said to have been convicted under
Article 168 of the Penal Code for membership in an outlawed organization
and was sentenced to prison.
Çoskun’s lawyer told CPJ that his client
had been convicted of membership in the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party
and was in Bursa Prison. According to the lawyer, Çoskun was accused
of distributing copies of Partizan Sesi, which the prosecution deemed
as evidence of his membership in the organization.
CPJ read court documents stating that Çoskun
had been detained on May 25, 1994, and accused of membership in the outlawed
Marxist-Leninist Communist Party under Article 168/2 of the Penal Code
and formally arrested on June 3, 1994. The documents indicated that the
State Security Court dropped the charge on June 16, 1994, and instead charged
him under Article 7/2 of the Anti-Terror Law (propagandizing on behalf
of an outlawed organization). Çoskun was said to have been convicted
of the Article 7/2 charge on an unspecified date, sentenced to 10 months
in prison, and fined 333 million TL. He was released prior to the expiration
of his term on October 25, 1994, according to the documents.
In the fall of 1997, Çoskun’s lawyer told
CPJ that his client was in prison. CPJ is attempting to determine if he
was in fact released on October 25, 1994, or if he was released and subsequently
arrested and imprisoned on an additional charge or charges.
Ali Sinan Çaglar, Mücadele
Imprisoned: August 6, 1994
Çaglar, Mücadele’s Ankara correspondent, was arrested
at the funeral of a political activist and charged with membership in an
illegal organization. He has been in prison since his arrest. On January
23, 1995, he was sentenced to 12 years and six months in prison for alleged
membership in the outlawed Dev Sol organization. CPJ believes Çaglar’s
work as a journalist may have led to his prosecution.
The state based its case on Çaglar’s testimony
and the statements of two people who said that Çaglar was a member
of Dev Sol. The prosecution said that Çaglar had admitted to hanging
posters with leftist slogans around the city, and stated that Çaglar
had burned a U.S. flag at Ankara University and shouted leftist slogans
during the funeral at which he was arrested. He was also accused of resisting
arrest on that occasion.
In his defense, Çaglar recanted the testimony
he gave while in police custody. He denied all charges, saying that he
had attended the funeral in his capacity as a journalist. Upon conviction
he was sent to Konya Prison. He is now in Ankara Closed Prison.
Bülent Ecevit Özdemir, Kurtulus
Imprisoned: December 7, 1995, Released: October 1997 [?]
Özdemir, a reporter for Kurtulus, was charged with membership
in an illegal organization under Article 168 of the Penal Code. He was
last known to be held in Konya Prison.
CPJ has been unable to obtain any court documents
in the case. In December 1997, the editor of Kurtulus told CPJ that
Özdemir had been released from prison in October 1997 pending the
outcome of his trial. CPJ has been unable to verify this report or determine
his status.
Semiha Topal, Kurtulus
Imprisoned: December 12, 1995
Topal, a reporter for the Antakya bureau of Kurtulus, was arrested,
charged, and convicted under Article 168/2 of the Penal Code. She was sentenced
to 12 years and six months in Malatya Prison.
Court documents obtained by CPJ state that Topal
was detained on December 12, 1995, in an apartment along with two other
suspects, for membership in the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation
Party-Front (DHKP-C). She was accused of taking part in throwing a Molotov
cocktail into a car showroom. Topal denied the allegation and denied being
at the scene of the crime. The prosecution presented four witnesses who
said she was there, a photo negative that they claimed showed her standing
behind the showroom’s broken windows, and footprints from the crime scene
which they said were Topal’s. She was also accused of hanging leftist banners
around the city.
CPJ is still investigating this case out of concern
that Topal’s prosecution is part of a pattern of state harassment of
Kurtulus.
Tekin Aygün, Kurtulus
Imprisoned: 1996 [?], Released: ?
Aygün, a reporter for the leftist weekly Kurtulus, was
reportedly arrested and jailed in Umraniye Prison. Kurtulus staffers
told CPJ that Aygün had been convicted of membership in an outlawed
organization under Article 168 of the Penal Code and sentenced to 12 years
and six months in prison. CPJ has obtained court documents stating that
prosecutors had dropped all charges against Aygün on November 30,
1995. But CPJ has been unable to determine if Aygün was facing trial
on other charges, or his whereabouts.
Özgür Öktem, Devrimci Emek
Imprisoned: February 19, 1996
CPJ believes that Öktem may have been imprisoned because of his
work as a reporter for the leftist magazine Devrimci Emek, which
we believe to have been the target of a state harassment campaign.
Öktem was arrested for alleged membership in
the Turkish Communist Labor Party-Leninist and tried under Articles 146/1,
168/2, and 169 of the Penal Code. Prosecution documents state that Öktem
was accused of participating in throwing Molotov cocktails, burning a city
bus, hanging leftist banners in Istanbul, and organizing illegal demonstrations.
He is said to be held in Bayrampasa Prison.
Aysel Sarica, Demokratik Universite Bulteni
Imprisoned: September 7, 1996
CPJ believes that Sarica’s imprisonment may be related to her work
as editor of the youth magazine Demokratik Universite Bulteni (published
by Alinteri). She was detained in Izmir on September 7, 1996, along
with Serpil Günes, Alinteri’s editor, when police raided a
vacation apartment where she and several of their Alinteri colleagues
were staying. Her colleagues said Sarica faced charges under Articles 6,
7, and 8 of the Anti-Terror Law and Article 312 and 155 of the Penal Code
in connection with numerous stories that appeared in the magazine. Sarica’s
lawyer told CPJ that she had been charged in nine separate cases stemming
from articles published in Demokratik Universite Bulteni, but that
the government’s August 14 amnesty for editors had suspended those prosecutions.
Sarica was also charged, and ultimately jailed,
for membership in an outlawed organization, the Turkish Revolutionary Communist
Union (TIKB), a violation of Article 168 of the Penal Code.
According to court documents, the prosecution stated
that Sarica had given police a counterfeit identification card on September
7. Upon determining her true identity, the police learned that she was
wanted for allegedly attacking a police officer during a May Day demonstration
in Istanbul in 1996.
At the time of the raid, a photograph alleged to
show Sarica beating the officer had been published across the country and
a warrant had already been issued for her arrest. The prosecution offered
the photograph as evidence.
CPJ is concerned that the circumstances of her arrest—albeit
on outstanding charges ostensibly unconnected to her work—contribute to
and follow from a pattern of harassment of Alinteri. No explanation
has been given for the police raid on the meeting at which Sarica was detained.
Furthermore, CPJ has not been able to verify that the allegedly incriminating
photograph is in fact a photograph of Sarica. CPJ continues to investigate
the extent to which Sarica’s Alinteri affiliation was a factor in
her prosecution.
Özden Özbay, Özgür Ülke
Imprisoned: November 1996, Released: 1997 [?]
Özbay, a former editor of the now-defunct pro-Kurdish daily Özgür
Ülke, was arrested and charged with violating Article 312 of the
Penal Code and Articles 6, 7, and 8 of the Anti-Terror Law.
Former staffers of Özgür Ülke
told CPJ that Özbay had been released, although they provided no information
on the date or circumstances.
CPJ has been unable to verify Özbay’s status
or whereabouts.
Zambia (1)
Gerard Gatare, Rwandan National Television
Imprisoned: October 10, 1995
Gatare, a former editor at Rwandan National Television, was arrested
and later imprisoned in Kabwata Central Prison in Lusaka. Early in 1995,
Gatare, fearing for his life, had fled to Zambia from a refugee camp outside
Rwanda. No charges have been brought against him. His arrest came after
a Rwandan government minister visited Zambia, reportedly bringing a list
of "wanted" Rwandan intellectuals with him. He had been awarded the 1994-95
Fulbright Hubert Humphrey Fellowship for International Journalists.