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Imprisoned
September 11
Marcel Mokwapi, Le Novateur, IMPRISONED, LEGAL ACTION
Mokwapi, managing editor of the weekly Le Novateur, was arrested for defamation in connection with articles published in the June and August issues of Le Novateur criticizing the slowness of the country's judicial system. He was detained until Sept. 18, when he was convicted, fined 500,000 CFA (US$975), and ordered to pay damages to the plaintiff, Judge Alain Gbaziale, in the symbolic amount of one CFA.
October 24
Marcel Mokwapi, Le Novateur, IMPRISONED
Mokwapi, managing editor of the daily Le Novateur, appeared before the Bangui Court of High Instance and was placed in preventive custody pending proceedings in a defamation lawsuit filed on behalf of the prime minister. The lawsuit was in connection with an article in the Aug. 27 issue of Le Novateur, which alleged that the prime minister had not given Hydro-Congo, a Congolese hydroelectric company, the full amount of a payment that the government had collected for it from the Petroca company, one of Hydro-Congo's customers in the Central African Republic. The article was based on an Aug. 19 letter from Hydro-Congo to Petroca.
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