Africtivistes condemns the imprisonment of Naïm Touré and calls for his release
Burkina Faso’s ICT communities deplore Naïm Touré’s prison sentence
On 13 June 2018, activist Naïm Touré was arrested by the gendarmerie following a post on his Facebook profile. The post led to the following charges:
- Participating in an operation to demoralise the defence and security forces;
- Proposing that members of the defence and security forces form a conspiracy against the security of the State; and
- Inciting public disorder.
In the same post, Naïm Touré had urged the defence and security forces to take responsibility for their living and working conditions, following the case of gendarme Henry Traoré, who was injured during the anti-terrorist operation in Rayongo.
Burkina Faso is a democratic country with a separation of powers. We trusted the justice system, with the fervent hope that the court would acquit him of all the charges.
We were therefore dismayed to learn on Tuesday 3 July that Naïm had been sentenced to two months’ imprisonment for “inciting public disorder without effect”.
This sentence does our country no credit. It signals a democratic setback and an infringement of freedom of expression and opinion in Burkina Faso.
We, organisations working in the ICT sector, regret this court decision, while acknowledging that social media are sometimes misused.
As organisations defending freedom of expression, a network of bloggers, web activists, journalists, incubators, third places, fab labs and civil society actors, we are deeply concerned about the situation of information professionals and social media users more broadly.
We therefore remind them of their responsibility on every occasion, particularly to use these digital platforms constructively and responsibly.
However, we cannot condone any violation of the principles our democracy holds dear: freedom of expression and individual and collective freedoms.
In light of the above, we call for Naïm Touré’s release.
<div align=”right”>Issued in Ouagadougou, 4 July 2018</div>
<div align=”right”>Signatories:</div>
For the Association of Bloggers of Burkina Faso (ABB)
Bassératou KINDO
For Africtivistes
Bassératou KINDO (member)
For Keolid
Lassane Ouédraogo
For Béogo-Neere
Malik Lingani
For Les Nouvelles du Quartier
Sharaf Omar Coulibaly
For Protaf
Wangnin Zerbo
For Ouagalab
Gildas Guiela
For Zamalab
Edmond Tiendrébeogo
For Jokkolabs
Cheick-Omar Ouédraogo
