Gambia News : Photo journalist arrested by Gambian police

Jun 17,2008 00:00 by lamin

A reporter/photo journalist with Foroyaa, a Gambian inde pendent newspaper, Saikou Ceesay was arrested Sunday by officers of the Kotu Police station while investigating the arrest and subsequent detention of former managing Daily Observer of Dida Halake newspaper at the Kotu Police Station.

Ceesay was detained for several hours before his release on bail the following day, without any charge preferred against him.

He was asked to report at the police station 17 June.

Sources told PANA here Ceesay was taken to the Serious Crime Unit at the Gambia Police headquarters in Banjul for interrogations Monday and taken back to Kotu P o lice Station, before a team of his editorial colleagues came to bail him.

Narrating his ordeal, the journalist said he spent the night in an open area on a bare mat, exposed to mosquitoes.

“I was constantly beaten by mosquitoes throughout the night,” he said.

Suwaibou Touray, Editor of Foroyaa newspaper, confirmed his colleague's arrest and subsequent detention, saying, he tendered his national identification card to bail his reporter.

In the same development, the sacked former managing Daily Observer newspaper Did a Halake has been release from police custody without charge and also redeployed as Editor-in-Chief of the paper, sources confirmed.