In Chad, security forces looted a private radio station on Friday, November 27, arresting nearly 70 people. Most of those arrested were released on Friday afternoon, several sources said.
However, three civil society activists were detained on Friday and Saturday and “made available for justice,” according to police.
Facts took place on Friday morning, around 10:00. The director of the FM Liberté radio station said he saw four police cars enter the premises without an arrest warrant and “without explanation”, assures director Lazare Djekourminga Kaoutar. The security forces used “several tear gas shots”, the official continues.
According to the police, people held a banner with the words “Citizen Forum”. Seventy people were arrested, a statement said. The police invoke the ban from the authorities on the “Citizen Forum” and the ban on gatherings of more than 50 people during a pandemic.
“They were journalists and technicians. They have all been released, “said Commander Paul Manga, the police spokesman, before adding that” three civil society activists will be brought to justice on Saturday. ”
Ms Francis Lokouldé, the lawyer for the three defendants, condemns an “unjustified arrest”. There was “no attempt to organize a forum”, assures this lawyer. His clients, he explains, had simply come to inform them of a press briefing.
A “confusion” with a spontaneous manifestation
The National Human Rights Commission, which claims to have intervened in dialogue with the Ministry of the Interior, ensures that the thirty arrested journalists were released on Friday afternoon. According to the CNDH, there would have been a “confusion” with a spontaneous but banned demonstration by civil society activists marching near the FM Liberté radio station.
Together with RFI, Lazare Djekourminga Kaoutar, radio director, looks back on this muscular descent.
It was 10 o’clock and some … when four Toyotas crowded with police, armed to the teeth, arrived in front of the radio. Police began firing tear gas canisters at the farm. It was a total storm. The police then took over the scene to extract the journalists and take them prisoner. […] They had no arrest warrant. They said they had received orders from above and therefore did not need to explain.
Lazare Djekourminga Kaoutar
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