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Alert

Two newspaper journalists detained over report on judicial corruption

(MFWA/IFEX) - Zakari Alzouma and Ayouba Karimou, publisher and managing editor respectively of the "Opinion", a privately-owned Niamey-based newspaper, were on October 7, 2011 arrested and detained for about six hours at the headquarters of the Criminal Investigative Department (CID) of the Nigerien Police Service in Niamey.

The Media Foundation for West Africa's (MFWA) correspondent reported that the arrest and subsequent detention of the two followed a complaint filed against them by the country's state prosecutor at the Niamey High Court.

The correspondent said that on October 13 Alzouma and Karimou appeared before the state prosecutor to answer further questions regarding a September article in which the "Opinion" newspaper was alleged to have accused the magistrates' body, the Independent Union of Magistrates of Niger (SAMAN), of acts of corruption.

The article in question, entitled "Corporatism or Stupidity?" appeared in the September 28 issue of the newspaper and supported the Minister of Justice, Marou Amadou, who had said that judges and magistrate in the country were corrupt.