On September 6, 2025, authorities in Niger arrested Ali Soumana, publishing director of the privately owned Le Courrier newspaper, after a defamation complaint by Prime Minister Ali Mahamane Lamine Zeine.
In June 2024, Niger’s military government reinstated a criminal sentence of up to three years in jail for defamation by electronic means, which had been abolished in 2022.
On September 6, judicial police arrested Soumana following a complaint by Zeine, who is also finance minister, relating to an August 28 article, which alleged that the prime minister signed a settlement agreement to avoid legal proceedings over cigarette customs fraud.
On September 8, an investigating judge in the capital Niamey charged Soumana with defamation through the press, complicity in defamation by electronic means, and dissemination of data likely to disturb public order or violate human dignity by electronic means, his lawyer, Ahmed Mahamane, told CPJ.
Soumana was incarcerated pending investigation in his case in Say prison, 60 kilometers south of Niamey, he added.
From April 4 to 8, Soumana was detained over a separate defamation complaint by the former director general of customs, who later withdrew the case, his lawyer said.
CPJ’s September 2025 calls to request comments from Zeine’s office went unanswered.