Human Rights Ambassador Asks Benin to Drop All Politically Motivated Charges Against Berthe Cakpossa

(YORK, UK) - Human Rights Ambassador William Nicholas Gomes, asked the prime minister of republic of Benin, Pascal Koupaki to immediately drop all politically motivated charges against Berthe Cakpossa.

On January 16, a judge in Cotonou, the commercial capital, sentenced Berthe Cakpossa, director of Canal 3 TV, to three months in prison, a fine of 500,000 francs CFA (US $1,000), and symbolic damages of 1 franc CFA, according to news reports. Cakpossa was charged with "offending the head of state.

William Nicholas Gomes, Human Rights Ambassador for Salem-News.com, marked Benin’s judiciary as one of the most corrupt sectors in the country.

Human Rights Ambassador William Nicholas Gomes said Judicial corruption had been endemic long before President Thomas Yayi Boni came to office in 2006.

Mr. Gomes said tt is really alarming that this government and the corrupt judiciary worked hand to hand and illegally sentence Berthe Cakpossa.

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Dear Prime Minister Pascal Koupaki,

I am William Nicholas Gomes, Human Rights Ambassador influential US based news agency Salem-News.com.

As a Human Rights Ambassador I do keep close eye on the human rights situations in the Republic of Benin.

I do understand that Benin is continuing its transition to democracy.

Right to freedom of speech and expression is closely related to other rights and very essential for meaningful democracy.

I am really concerned over the illegal sentencing of Berthe Cakpossa, director of Canal 3 TV.

On January 16, a judge in Cotonou, the commercial capital, sentenced Berthe Cakpossa, director of Canal 3 TV, to three months in prison, a fine of 500,000 francs CFA (US$1,000), and symbolic damages of 1 franc CFA, according to news reports. Cakpossa was charged with "offending the head of state," news reports said.

Her defense lawyer, Claret Dedie, told CPJ the journalist was appealing the decision. Dedie also said that prison terms of less than six months do not require immediate incarceration in Benin, and that the appeal had suspended the execution of the sentence.

Cakpossa was charged under the penal code in connection with a September 18 broadcast of a press conference in which Lionel Agbo, a former adviser to Yayi, had accused the president's entourage of corruption and alleged that the head of state was aware, according to local journalists and news reports. Under Benin's 1997 press law, journalists are considered the author of third-party statements they report, Dedie told CPJ. Agbo was sentenced to six months in jail on the same charges, Cakpossa said.

The day after the broadcast, Yayi filed a complaint to the state-run media regulator, the High Authority for Broadcasting and Communications (HAAC), in which he denied the accusations and accused Canal 3 of undermining national cohesion and "disturbing public order," news reports said. On November 20, HAAC suspended two of Canal 3's TV programs. Yayi's complaint led to the case against Cakpossa.

"President Yayi retaliated against a journalist who conveyed a message he did not like and then pressured the courts to impose his will. He is sending a message that his government is off-limits to critical scrutiny," said CPJ Africa Advocacy Coordinator Mohamed Keita from New York. "We call on the appeals court to overturn this verdict, which is a stain on Benin's image as a free, democratic nation."

Cakpossa told CPJ she had been involved in a separate trial based on a related complaint filed by Yayi's aides in response to the September broadcast. She said she had been acquitted of criminal defamation charges in that case.

Dedie told CPJ he was surprised by Cakpossa's conviction for offending the president when Yayi had recently some aides accused of corruption. Dedie also pointed out that Cakpossa had been prosecuted in two separate trials in connection with the same broadcast, but that she had been convicted only in the case in which the complainant was the president.

I want to remind you freedom of expression is intimately linked to political debate and the concept of democracy.

Benin’s judiciary is one of the most corrupt sectors in the country. Judicial corruption had been endemic long before President Thomas Yayi Boni came to office in 2006.

It’s really alarming your government and the corrupt judiciary worked hand to hand and illegally sentenced Berthe Cakpossa, director of Canal 3 TV, to three months in prison, a fine of 500,000 francs CFA (US$1,000), and symbolic damages of 1 franc CFA.

The conviction of Berthe Cakpossa, director of Canal 3 TV, is highly politically motivated and illegal. The verdict seriously undermines the right to freedom of expression and press freedom.

I urge you immediately drop all politically motivated charges against Berthe Cakpossa.

William Nicholas Gomes
Human Rights Ambassador for Salem-News.com
www.williamnichoalsgomes.com

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Salem-News.com Human Rights Ambassador William Nicholas Gomes is a Bangladeshi journalist, human rights activist and author was born on 25 December, 1985 in Dhaka. As an investigative journalist he wrote widely for leading European and Asian media outlets.

He is also active in advocating for free and independent media and journalists’ rights, and is part of the free media movement, Global Independent Media Center – an activist media network for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate telling of the truth. He worked for Italian news agency Asianews.it from year 2009 to 2011, on that time he was accredited as a free lance journalist by the press information department of Bangladesh. During this time he has reported a notable numbers of reports for the news agency which were translated into Chinese and Italian and quoted by notable number of new outlets all over the world.He, ideologically, identifies himself deeply attached with anarchism. His political views are often characterized as “leftist” or “left-wing,” and he has described himself as an individualist anarchist.