[ 2016-09-26 ]

Daboussi was not arrested over his book – Lawyer
The lawyer of Ghanaian writer and pilot Fadi Samih
Daboussi has disclosed that his client was not
detained because of the book he authored titled:
“59 Years to Nowhere.”

Mr. Daboussi was arrested and detained by the BNI
over the weekend for allegedly writing a book on
Ghana and making offensive comments about the
President John Mahama on some websites.

He was released on Monday.

But speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Monday,
Hassan Tampoli said his client was picked up
because of some articles he published on some
online portals in the country.

“The books were initially taken away from his
residence but they were brought back yesterday.
The interaction that he had with the BNI had
nothing to do with the books so I believe that is
why they returned the books at dawn yesterday. But
everything had to do with the articles he had
written,” he added.

Tampoli also argued that some of the comments
critics claim Daboussi made against the president
were referenced from some newspapers.

“He wrote an article which the content of which
had things which were already in the public domain
and a newspaper had already published that story
and he only referenced the content. He only
referenced the content of the article so he was
not the author.”

BNI wrong place to seek redress

The lawyer also explained that the BNI was the
wrong place for aggrieved persons supposedly
indicted in the article to seek redress.

To him, such persons could write a rejoinder,
petition the National Media Commission or go to
court.

“…I believe the BNI is not the appropriate
quarters for such issues to be discussed. If there
is any publication that is critical of the
president and minister or any government official,
we have recourse to a rejoinder… to clarify
anything that has been leveled against you. If you
don’t want to do a rejoinder you can lodge a
complaint at the national Media Commission for the
commission to investigate the matter. At the end
of the day, the person whose article is more or
less judged to be wrongful would be asked to
retract and apologize.”

“Another remedy for any persons who are
aggrieved is to go to court. BNI is not one of the
places to make a report that somebody had
published something against you,” he insisted.

Occupy BNI

A group calling itself Ghana Must Know had earlier
threatened to stage a mass action at the premises
of the BNI, if it fails to release Mr. Daboussi.

“We are occupying BNI as early as 5am to demand
the release of our brother. We are not going to do
anything that will breach the peace of this
country. We are only going there to demand for his
immediate release. If they are not doing that then
maybe it will follow with a mass demonstration
across the country,” Convener of Ghana Must
Know, Hopeson Adorye told Citi News.

Source - citifmonline.com

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