GPU Laments Radio Manager’s Plight

Alagie Abdoulie Ceesay/The Point Picture

Gambia Press Union (GPU) Secretary General Saikou Jammeh has lamented the case of radio journalist Abdoulie Ceesay, who is standing trial during eight months despite serious health problems.

“The Gambia Press Union wishes to once again bring the attention of the commission to the sedition and false information trial involving Mr. Abdoulie Ceesay, the manager of Taranga FM. The case has been dragging at the courts for eight months now, ” said Saikou Jammeh in a statement he delivered today at the 58th ordinary session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), which is being held in Banjul from 4 to 20 April 2016.

Abdoulie Ceesay’s case has sparked international outcry with many human rights organizations appealing to the Gambian leader to ensure his release but he continues to turn a deaf ear to persistent calls.

The GPU secretary general decried the fact that the radio journalist case has been dragging at the courts for eight months. “Ceesay, who was only yesterday (April 11, 2016) admitted at the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital for the second time in two weeks, has been in the custody of the state for more than nine months, and his family has
since Friday been denied access to him at the prison,” he revealed.

GPU’s Sakou Jammeh called on the ACHPR to urge for the release of Abdoulie Ceesay.

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