Since July 27, two French nationals have been imprisoned in Togo. Journalists, they worked as directors for a French production company, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs told AFP this Tuesday, August 18. Gaël Mocaër and Sebastian Perez Pezzani were filming the documentary show The Roads of the Impossiblescheduled to be broadcast on France 5, when they were arrested with their Togolese fixer by local law enforcement.
Conflicting versions
First placed under house arrest, the three men were “ were placed in pre-trial detention and charged with “false declarations” on August 17 », Indicates the association Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) in a press release. They are currently detained at the Agoé Logopé camp. The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for its part, reveals that French nationals “ are currently the subject of a judicial investigation conducted by an investigating judge “. “ The ministry’s services, in Paris and Lomé, are fully mobilized to ensure their conditions of detention, their state of health and respect for their rights to defense », reassures the Quai d’Orsay.
According to RSF, the two French journalists nevertheless had proper filming authorization. The organization ensures that their continued detention is “ unjustified and disproportionate » and demands their immediate release. A version denied by the High Authority for the Regulation of Written, Audiovisual and Digital Communication (HARC) of Togo, which claims to have not been informed of “ no request for accreditation “.
For HARC, it is now up to the courts to determine “ the circumstances of the presence of the persons concerned on the national territory, the nature of their activities as well as, where applicable, the acts with which they are accused “. The state of health of the journalists, both fathers, worries those around them, reports RSF. France Télévisions, for its part, has not yet made any communication on the detention of the two directors.
