Newspaper editors Serge Sabouang of the bimonthly La Nation and Robert Mintya of the weekly Le Devoir were freed provisionally Wednesday after more than eight months in Yaoundé’s main prison, Kondengui. Sabouang confirmed their release in a phone call last night with the Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) correspondent in Cameroon.
“We hail the release of these two journalists with immense relief,” RSF secretary-general Jean-François Julliard said. “RSF had been urging the Cameroonian authorities to free them ever since their arrest in March. They can now be reunited with their families and they will not be detainees when they stand trial.”
Sabouang and Mintya were arrested on charges of forging the signature of the president’s chief of staff, Laurent Esso, and using it to discredit him. A third newspaper editor who was arrested with them, Bibi Ngota of the Cameroun Express, died in Kondengui prison on April 22.
RSF learnt from various local sources that Esso died Wednesday night. This news has not yet been officially confirmed.
In a press release at the end of September, RSF had said: “After more than six months in provisional detention, [Sabouang and Mintya] must either be brought before a judge as a matter of urgency or they must be released without delay. RSF provided them with financial assistance in August.
