Togo: Imprisonment and ill-treatment of an independent journalist: West African Human Rights Defenders Under Attack

Index Number: AFR 57/013/2001
Date Published: 13 August 2001
Categories: Africa, Togo

Lucien Messan, editor of the Togolese newspaper, Le Combat du Peuple, was sentenced on 5 June 2001 to 18 months' imprisonment, with six months suspended for "forgery and use of forgeries". Amnesty International believes he was convicted solely because of his activities as an independent journalist and in an attempt to silence him, and considers him a prisoner of conscience.