Court rejects jailed Senegalese journalist's appeal

An appeals court in the Senegalese capital of Dakar upheld a three-year prison sentence against imprisoned editor El Malick Seck on February 23, 2009, according to international and local news reports. The case involved an editorial implicating President Abdoulaye Wade and his son Karim in an alleged money-laundering scandal.

Defense lawyers for Seck, the managing editor of the daily 24 Heures Chrono, told local reporters they would appeal the ruling at the Court of Cassation.

Seck has been behind bars since August 28, 2008. In December 2008, in a libel case brought by Interior Minister Cheikh Tidiane Sy, a judge sentenced the journalist to six months in prison, a fine of 250,000 CFA francs (US$496), and 20 million CFA francs (US$39,677) in damages over a story alleging links between Sy and the assassins of a French judge killed in Djibouti, according to the reports.

The same month, in another libel case brought by Pape Massène Sène, an official at the Ministry of Culture, Seck, and reporter Maké Dagnokho were each given a suspended sentence of one year in prison, a fine of 250,000 CFA francs and 20 million CFA francs (US$39,677) in damages, according to the Media Foundation of West Africa. 

February 25, 2009 2:12 PM ET |

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