Mohamed Houmed Souleh, president of the Association pour la defense des droits de l’homme et des libertes (ADDHL) and a former member of parliament, was arrested on 14 September 1993 on a charge of defamation, following a complaint by the Minister of Defence. He has so far been detained incommunicado. He was arrested and charged because of statements he made to the press on 9 September and since, criticizing government forces for committing gross human rights violations in the recent military offensive against the armed opposition group, Front pour la restauration de l’unite et de la democracie (FRUD). The defamation charge relates to his accusation that the army shot at an officially authorized delegation investigating the abuses.
