Niger’s courts granted the director of the country’s largest private daily newspaper The Inquirer temporary release following months of detention, AFP learned Wednesday.
Idrissa Soumana Maiga had been detained since late April for “attacking national defence” after an article mentioned the “presumed” installation of Russian listening devices in official buildings.
Maiga was “released on Tuesday afternoon. He is at home and resting,” Harouna Mamoudou, an editor at The Inquirer, told AFP.
He added that the director had been “provisionally released” after two months and two weeks in detention.
Maiga was arrested by police on April 25 and placed under a committal order four days later in a prison in Niamey, his lawyer Kafougou Ousmane Ben said.
The CAPM — a group of local journalists — condemned the arrest and demanded his release.
In the Reporters Without Borders’s world press freedom rankings this year, Niger placed 80th out of 180 countries.
In mid-June, a 2019 law punishing the digital dissemination of defamatory material and “insults” was tightened.
Following the recent changes, the penalty for disseminating such information is two to five years in prison.
The offences of spreading defamation or insults carry terms of one to three years.