Abidjan – Reporters Without Borders on Monday urged Ivory Coast to launch an investigation into the “manifestly illegal extradition” of a refugee journalist from Benin critical of his home country’s president.
The press freedom watchdog, known by its French acronym RSF, called the circumstances of Hugues Comlan Sossoukpe’s arrest “murky”, and raised the possibility that the Ivorian authorities were “complicit” in his “kidnapping”.
Sossoukpe, who held refugee status while living in exile in Togo, is a critic of Beninese President Patrice Talon.
While Benin was once seen as a thriving multi-party democracy, Talon has been accused of clamping down on the opposition since coming to power in the west African nation in 2016.
Sossoukpe was arrested on July 10 while in Abidjan to attend a digital innovation forum at the Ivorian authorities’ invitation, before being put on a plane to Benin and sent to jail.
In a statement, the press freedom watchdog said its investigation had found that it was the “Beninese police themselves who ended up taking charge of the operation”, with the local authorities “completely bypassed”.
“It is imperative that the Ivorian authorities conduct an independent, transparent investigation to shed light on what amounts to serious negligence — potentially even active complicity — that led to the arrest and manifestly illegal extradition of Hugues Sossoukpe,” said RSF’s Arnaud Froger.
Ivory Coast government spokesman Amadou Coulibaly insisted to AFP on July 23 that the extradition was not illegal.
“The authorities ignored his status as a political refugee. We have simply executed a mandate in the name of judicial cooperation with Benin,” he added.
In the statement, RSF criticised Coulibaly’s explanation offered “13 days after the fact”, and said the spokesman had since told them he had learnt “nothing new” on the issue.
Sossoukpe is jailed in Ouidah, south Benin, while he awaits prosecution for “harassment via a computer system”, “rebellion” and “apology for terrorism”.
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Source: AFP
