DURBIN, OTHER SENATORS PRESS COMMONWEALTH NATIONS ON MISSING JOURNALIST'S CASE

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL) sent a letter today to Kamalesh Sharma, Secretary General of the Commonwealth Nations, urging him to launch an investigation into the case of Chief Ebrima Manneh, a Gambian journalist who has been held incommunicado and without charge for almost four years.

“Mr. Manneh’s disappearance and the Gambian Government’s ongoing refusal to account for his whereabouts are in direct contradiction of the strong human rights standards embraced by the Commonwealth,” Durbin wrote. “Undoubtedly many members of the Commonwealth also share our concern about the deteriorating political and human rights situation in the Gambia, an issue you raised at the recent Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Trinidad and Tobago.  Accordingly, we respectfully ask that you investigate Mr. Manneh’s disappearance and press Gambian President Jammeh not only for his immediate release, but also to reverse the Gambia’s poor human rights record.”

Chief Manneh was reportedly detained in July 2006 for political reasons by plainclothes police officers thought to have been from the Gambian National Intelligence Agency.  Some reports suggest that he is being held at the Fatoto Police Station in eastern Gambia, at Mile Two Prison, or a National Intelligence Agency compound in Serekunda.  In July 2007, he was also reportedly escorted by members of the Gambian Police Intervention Unit to the Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital in Banjul for high blood pressure treatment. He has not been seen sense.

Both the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Community Court of Justice and the UN Human Rights Council’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention have called for the immediate release of Mr. Manneh.

Durbin, Chairman on the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and Law, has been pressing for Chief Manneh’s release for over two years. Joining him on today’s letter were Senators Feingold (D-WI), Casey (D-PA), Cardin (D-MD) and Lieberman (I-CT).