H. E. Ahmed Tejan Kabbah
President
Freetown
Sierra Leone
Vienna, 25 August 1998
Your Excellency,
The International Press Institute (IPI) is deeply concerned about the fate of five journalists, who were sentenced to death in Sierra Leone on Monday, August 24 1998, on charges of treason in connection with a May 1997 coup d’etat.
We are informed that 16 Sierra Leone citizens, including five journalists, were found guilty of treason for collaborating with the ousted Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC) junta. Justice Edmond Cowan passed the sentences after a trial lasting about four months. We understand that the law under which they were tried provides for execution by firing squad, that they can appeal against their sentences within 21 days, and that Your Excellency has the power to commute the sentences.
The convicted journalists were Hilton Fyle, a former BBC Radio Africa Service presenter, Gipu Felix George, a former director-general of the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corportion, radio journalists Dennis Smith and Olivia Mensah, and newspaper editor Ibrahim Ben Kargbo. Others condemned included businessmen and government bureaucrats.
In the absence of sufficient transparency surrounding the convictions, IPI fears that the five journalists face imminent execution on charges that have not been substantiated in an open and fair legal process and that their conviction may have been connected to their activities as journalists.
IPI, the global network of editors and media executives, urges Your Excellency to commute the journalists’ sentences and, if there were indeed convicted for exercising their profession as journalists, to ensure that they are immediately released.
We thank you for your attention.
Yours sincerely,
Johann P. Fritz
Director