David Tam Baryoh’s forced signed confession to freedom. The imminent release of popular journalist David Tam Bayoh from prison, has been engineered by a Committee set up to secure his release. The committee, who met Tam Baryoh in prison and also spoke with president Koroma at State House, is made up of his lawyers Melron Nicol, journalists – Phillip Neville and Christo Johnson, and Memunatu Pratt – a peace studies lecturer at the University of Sierra Leone. But there are serious concerns this morning that, the committee may have succeeded in getting Tam Baryoh to sign a confession that will now guarantee his pardon by the president. An independent human rights group – Rightsway International, has strongly condemned President Koroma for allegedly dictating to the Committee to obtain a signed confession from the journalist. Elvis Kamara, Director for RightsWay, said: “We are pleased by the Committee’s effort to secure the immediate release of Tam Bayoh, but we are very shocked and disappointed by the way his confession was obtained and published.” “It should be noted that President Ernest Koroma was wrong to order the alleged unlawful detention of Tam-Baryoh. The President has flouted the country’s justice system by allegedly forcing the journalist into making false ‘confession’ publicly. “The sole aim of this forced confession is to destroy the credibility of the journalist. This is a violation of the journalist’s human rights in order to canvass public opinion for political gains. “The unethical act of publishing Tam-Baryoh’s forced confession can only be seen as an attempt by the authorities in Sierra Leone to incriminate the journalist, and negate international media reports and the widely held strong public opinion that Tam Baryoh is being unlawfully detained over criticisms of government handling of Ebola crisis,” says Elvis Kamara.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 20:41:56 +0000