OCTOBER 9, 2005
Posted October 13, 2005
Dimas Dzikodo, Le Forum de la Semaine
ATTACKED
Dzikodo, publication director of the private weekly Le Forum de la Semaine, was brutally beaten in the capital, Lomé. His newspaper is strongly critical of Togolese authorities.
According to local sources, unidentified attackers knocked Dzikodo from his motorcycle and beat him, then sprayed an unidentified liquid from an aerosol can into his face and forced him to drink another liquid, which he managed to spit out. Dzikodo was taken to a hospital, where he spent several days recovering.
Dzikodo had been previously targeted for his journalistic work. In June 2003, while editor of the now defunct L’Evènement, he was arrested at an Internet café while scanning photographs of people allegedly mistreated by security forces during 2003 presidential elections. Dzikodo was jailed for more than two weeks along with two other journalists.