Ivory Coast prison guard accused of death threats on journalist

Text by: Pierre Pinto Follow

A colleague of the newspaper L'Intelligent d'Abidjan investigating the actions of a prison guard was attacked and threatened with death by the same guard. The affair caused a stir and the professional organizations of journalists had been up for a week. All the trade unions protested. An investigation has been opened.

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From our correspondent in Abidjan

At the end of the morning of May 6, Claude Dassé goes to the Abidjan Detention and Correctional Center (Maca) to collect the version of the person questioned by the investigation he is writing , a guardian answering the sweet nickname "the Machine". Appointment has been made before. The prison hierarchy has been notified, but the stage manager is absent. Quickly, the interview which takes place in front of the entrance to the prison and in front of witnesses, degenerates. According to Claude Dassé, "La Machine" and three accomplices tear his phone from him, strike him, kidnap him for three hours and threaten him, before releasing him.

The journalist had come to ask “La Machine” for his version of the facts about his investigation revealing a real system of racketeering in the overcrowded prison: 10,000 francs per week to each of the heads of the 203 “rooms” of the prison; 5,000 francs per week for fridge holders, 3,000 francs for anyone who wants to be able to play sports ... "  It is a militia within the prison guard. They terrorize the detainees and make the law at Maca  ”, describes our colleague.

This racketeering system would generate millions of FCFA every week and would benefit, according to the journalist, from high-ranking partners in the penitentiary and administrative apparatus.

Claude Dassé filed a complaint for violence and forcible confinement. But from May 7, the prosecution of the court of Yopougon, the vast commune of Abidjan where Maca is built, self-seized. An investigation was entrusted to the gendarmerie, which heard the journalist, the mainly accused warden, as well as the prison manager, the director of the prison administration and witnesses.

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• Ivory Coast