Detained journalist's wife missing, says RSF

The lobby group for media freedom, Reporters sans frontieres, has said the wife of Hassan Bility, the Liberian editor who has been held incommunicado for more than two months by the government, went missing two weeks ago. It said Bility's wife, Maria Nyenetue, left the capital city, Monrovia, on 20 August to try to see him, after apparently receiving word from him that he was in Klay, 50 km to the northwest, and needed some money. Nyenetue left after declining to give money to the person who brought the message, according to RSF ('Reporters Without Borders'). Bility is the editor of the private weekly newspaper, The Analyst. He was arrested with two other people in Monrovia, allegedly on suspicion of operating a LURD (Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy) terrorist cell in the capital city. In a statement on Wednesday, RSF expressed "extreme concern" about Bility's fate, saying he had been accused by the Liberian government of plotting with rebel forces to kill President Charles Taylor. The government should respect the Liberian constitution and bring the journalist before a judge, it added. "Despite numerous requests since his arrest, he has not appeared in court and the government has not kept its promise to allow a Red Cross representative to see him," RSF stated. "The three [Bility, Ansumana Kamara and Abubakar Kamara] are being held in a secret place without formal charges in violation of Article 21 of the Constitution, which says anyone arrested must be brought before a court and charged within 48 hours," it added. The media freedom watchdog quoted the Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism Reginald Goodridge as saying that Bility had been a "central figure" among "those who have been running cells in Monrovia actively collaborating with the LURD and their supporters in the United States" with the aim of assassinating President Taylor. A LURD spokesman denied Goodridge's claim. In July and August, the Liberian authorities refused to present Bility and the two others in court as demanded by several human rights organisations, and despite a habeas corpus order by Liberia's supreme military court, RSF added.