Police arrested Yusuf, chief editor of the independent daily newspaper Jamhurya, for “insulting important personalities, circulating false information and criticizing the leaders of the republic.”
Yusuf was arrested in connection with several articles published in June, July, and September 1997, and on February 2, March 1, and March 31, 1998. Included were articles about a dispute between the army and the government; about the outbreak of a Rift Valley disease that was later denied; about 33 punitive amputations ordered by an Islamic court in the town of Buro; and about remarks concerning the prosecutor general and officials of the justice system.