Senegalese president pardons journalist over 2018 massacre

The president of Senegal has pardoned a journalist convicted to life in prison over a 2018 massacre in the southern Casamance region, the Committee to Protect Journalists watchdog said in a statement.

Journalist Rene Capain Bassene was convicted over the rounding up and killing of 14 loggers in January 2018 by armed individuals in the Bayottes forest in Casamance.

The region is almost entirely separated from the rest of Senegal by The Gambia, and is home to an independence rebellion that has simmered for 43 years.

"The Senegalese president has sought to correct a grave miscarriage of justice against a journalist who has devoted his entire career to the resolution of the separatist conflict in Casamance", Moussa Ngom, CPJ's francophone Africa representative, said in a statement.

The organisation said that President Bassirou Diomaye Faye on Tuesday granted pardon to Bassene, who was freed from prison in Dakar the following day.

Following the massacre of the loggers in 2018 in a protected forest, a separatist group, the Casamance Movement of Democratic Forces (MFDC), was blamed but the organisation denied all involvement.

Casamance rebel fighters used the forest as a base and the Senegalese authorities accuse them of financing their activities by trafficking the wood, as well as cannabis.

The rebel group denied any involvement in the murders, accusing corrupt local officials.

Two members of MFDC as well as journalist Bassene were sentenced to life in prison over the killing.

One of the MFDC members was tried in absentia while the other was acquitted in August 2024.

The court in the region's main city of Ziguinchor had additionally handed down six-month suspended sentences to two other defendants and acquitted 11 others.

Bassene had spent most of his career covering the conflict between the MFDC and Senegalese government, and has written several books on the topic.

CPJ said its review of court documents and interviews with Bassene, his co-accused and witnesses revealed a severely flawed investigation into the journalist.

Several defendants who were subsequently acquitted said they were forced to implicate Bassene or sign inaccurate interview records, the organisation said.