Senegal ALERT: Minister sues jailed newspaper editor for defamation

El Malick Seck, jailed editor-in-chief of 24 Heures Chrono, a privately-owned newspaper, will on October 28, 2008 appear before a court in Dakar to answer defamation charges brought against him by the country’s Minister of Interior, Sheikh Tidiane Sy.
 
The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)’s correspondent reported that the suit followed an article in  24 Heures Chrono published on July14  that  said although  Sy has denied having links with Diané brothers who were reported to have murdered a  French judge in Djibouti, a United States Agency for International Development (USAID)’s document confirmed that Sy had worked for assassins  in Washington.

Seck is serving a three-year prison sentence for linking President Abdoulaye Wade and his son to a Côte d’Ivoire money laundering case. The 24 Heures Chrono has also been banned for three months for the same offence. The ban expires on December 12.

The Media Foundation for West Africa