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The Committee to Shield Journalists welcomes Thursday’s launch on bail of Nigerian journalist Saint Mienpamo Onitsha and requires authorities to drop all fees towards him and reform the nation’s legal guidelines to make sure journalism is just not criminalized.
“Saint Mienpamo Onitsha was detained for almost 4 months merely for doing his job, which ought to by no means be thought-about against the law,” mentioned CPJ Africa Head Angela Quintal in New York. “Whereas we welcome Thursday’s launch of Onitsha, we repeat our name for Nigerian authorities to swiftly drop all fees towards him and reform the nation’s legal guidelines to make sure journalists don’t proceed to be jailed for his or her reporting.”
In October 2023, police arrested Ontisha, founding father of the privately owned on-line broadcaster NAIJA Dwell TV, and charged him with cyberstalking underneath part 24 of Nigeria’s Cybercrimes Act and defamation underneath the felony code. The cost sheet cited a September report about tensions within the southern Niger Delta area.
On December 4, a court docket in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, heard Onitsha’s bail utility and on January 25 the court docket granted him bail with a situation that he supplies two sureties—individuals prepared to take accountability for any court docket choices made if Onitsha fails to satisfy bail obligations—with a bond of 10 million naira (US$8,372), in line with copies of the court docket ruling, reviewed by CPJ, and Onitsha’s lawyer, Anande Terungwa, who spoke by telephone with CPJ.
The court docket additionally ordered the residence of the sureties have to be verified by the court docket registrar and that the sureties should submit paperwork proving they personal a landed property in Abuja, in addition to their current passport images, in line with those self same sources.
Onitsha’s subsequent court docket date is March 19. If convicted, he faces a 25 million naira (US$20,930) high-quality and/or as much as 10 years in jail on the cyberstalking fees—in addition to potential imprisonment for 2 years for fees of defamation and the publication of defamatory matter underneath the Felony Code Act, in line with Terungwa and a replica of the cost sheet reviewed by CPJ.
Terungwa informed CPJ that the delay between Onitsha being granted bail on January 25 and his launch on February 1 was because of a chronic verification course of amongst officers and prosecution legal professionals on the situations of Onitsha’s bail.
Onitsha appeared in CPJ’s 2023 jail census, which documented no less than 67 journalists jailed throughout Africa as of December 1.
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