| Presidential Guards beat up 4
journalists, one to a coma |
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| Written by The Exclusive News Paper
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| Monday, 05 September 2011
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| Two
plain-clothed policemen attached to the Presidential Guards at State
House on Saturday 3 September 2011 severely beat up four journalists
leaving one of them in a state of comatose. The two assailants have
been identified only as Sullay and Kabbah. The journalists had gone
to the National Stadium to cover an international football fixture
between Sierra Leone and Egypt when the irate guards went loose on
them.
“SLAJ
strongly condemns such barbaric act smacking of behaviour typical of
gangsters and layabouts” says SLAJ President, Umaru Fofana who was
present during the beating of two of the journalists. He urges
President Ernest Bai Koroma and his government to help bring the two
police officers to book and let justice be done to show there is
respect for the rule of law in Sierra Leone and no-one is above the
law.
One
of the assailed journalists, Mohamed Fajah Barrie who reports for
BBC Sport and heads the Sports Writers’ Association of Sierra Leone
was left in a coma after Kabbah pounced on him, beat and kicked him,
stabbed him in the forehead until he fell into coma. Fajah was later
taken to hospital for which SLAJ wishes to thank the Sierra Leone
Red Cross Society who were on hand.
The
other journalists Kemoh Sesay of Exclusive Newspaper and Universal
Radio, Alhaji Tarawallie of Premier Tok and Sulaiman Storm Koroma of
Radio Democracy were also beaten simply because they intervened to
either rescue their colleague or take photographs of the melee. They
also sustained bodily injuries.
Even
after the incident at the stadium, while some journalists among them
the SLAJ President were heading to the hospital with the injured
journalists, the assailants were in an unregistered and unlicensed
Land Cruiser vehicle with Guinean number plate RC 9441. They jumped
out of the vehicle and took position as if to beat up more
journalists. The SLAJ president goaded his colleagues to use a
by-pass route to the hospital.
SLAJ
has unofficially protested to the Minister of Information and is
writing a protest letter to President Koroma calling for the two
officers to be arrested and brought to justice for their aggression
against the journalists. “We will use this case as a barometer to
gauge how much impunity exists in the country especially when crimes
are committed by those around the presidency”, the SLAJ boss says.
The
assault at the National Stadium began as Mohamed Fajah Barrie
attempted to enter the football field in the dying minutes of the
match just after Sierra Leone had scored what turned out to be their
winning goal to do post-match interviews. He was stopped by the
police even when he had a clearly-marked Press Pass , a BBC ID card
and a BBC-labelled microphone. While he was trying to explain to the
police that it is common practice for journalists to enter the field
to do interviews, guard Sullay allegedly attempted to lift his
pocket. He held Sullay by the arm as he tried to draw the attention
of the other policemen to the act. Kabbah at this stage rushed in
and started beating Barrie .
Meanwhile
Mr Barrie has been released from hospital after spending a night
there receiving treatment.
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