Ivorian journalists arrested over cocoa story

Théophile Kouamouo, the Editor-in-chief of the Ivorian daily 'Le Nouveau Courier' and three of his collaborators are being held in detention at the headquarters of Ivorian judiciary police section in Abidjan, after publishing the results of the investigation carried out by the Prosecutor about alleged fraud and embezzlement in Cocoa and coffee sector.In late 2007, as an allegation of fraud and embezzlement in the cocoa and coffee sector fueled debates throughout the whole country, the President of the Republic, Laurent Gbagbo, requested to Raymond Tchimou, the Prosecutor, to investigate that sector in order to find out the truth.

The Prosecutor conducted a series of investigations. He gave the results of these investigations to the President on June 24th, 2010. But nothing filtered down to the public until Tuesday 13th July, when ‘Le Nouveau Courrier’ Published part 1 of a 4-part series about the results of that investigation.

The trouble of Kouamouo and his colleagues (Stéphane Guédé, Saint-Claver Oula, Stéphane Bahi) began when, under the banner headline ‘Le Livre Noir de la filière café-cacao-1’ (The black book of cocoa and coffee sector-Part1), Le Nouveau Courrier published the profile of 21 top executives involved in the embezzlement. All the top executives are either close to the ruling party or close to President Gbagbo.

The daily mentioned the level of responsibility of each executive in the embezzlement; the exact amount of money each of them has embezzled and the methods they used to misappropriate the funds.

The journalists of ‘Le Nouveau Courrier’ were arrested on Tuesday, July 13th, 2010, when they were summoned for questioning at the Prosecutor’s office in Plateau District, in Abidjan.
At about 10 am the Editor-in-chief received a call from the Prosecutor, who requested that the journalist reveal the source of his story.

They pressmen refused and the prosecutor ordered a raid on their offices. Police officers stormed the offices of ‘Le Nouveau Courrier’ and seized the laptop of the editor and sequestered the journalists.

“I don’t know how you got this confidential document? As you can’t tell me who gave it to you or how you got it, I will consider that you stole it here. Then, you will be indicted for theft of confidential document,” the Prosecutor said.

The arrest of the journalists has prompted the protest of the Ivorian journalists’ unions. The CNP, UNJCI and GEPCI as well as most journalists have shown their solidarity to their arrested colleagues.