Human rights advocate detained

A court in Niger's capital, Niamey, remanded a leading human rights advocate into custody on Friday, two days after police arrested him for questioning the official death toll of clashes between mutineers and loyal soldiers earlier this month. The government accuses Elhadj Bagnou Bonkoukou, head of the Ligue nigerienne des droits de l'homme (LNDDH - Niger Human Rights League), of propagating information that could jeopardise national defence operations. If found guilty, he faces up to five years in jail. On Tuesday, the human rights advocate had said that many people died in clashes between mutineers and loyalist forces as the latter put down a mutiny that lasted from 31 July to 9 August in the eastern region of Diffa and an attempted mutiny in Niamey. The government had given the death toll as two. The human rights advocate had also asked the government to allow the International Federation of Human Rights to carry out an investigation. Elhadj Bagnou was arrested on Wednesday and detained by the judicial police. On Friday, the court ordered him sent him to the Niamey penitentiary. Civil society organisations - including the Association nigérienne de défense des droits de l'homme (ANDDH - Niger Association for the Defence of Human Rights) - condemned his arrest and demanded his liberation. They also denounced a presidential decree issued on 5 August by virtue of which he was arrested. The decree, promulgated at the height of the mutiny, bans the propagation by any communication medium of information or allegations that could jeopardise national defence operations. "Whether the government likes it or not, our action is going to be guided by our will to inform and give good information to citizens so that we can be aware of the stakes of the current political and socio-economic situation," said Sourguia Soumana, a spokesman of the ANDDH.