The Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) joined 180 journalists, civil society organizations and university researchers in a joint letter urging the Senegalese President, Bassirou Diomaye Diakhar Faye, to put an end to the prolonged detention of journalist and writer René Capain Bassène, imprisoned since January 2018 and convicted for complicity. The murder. An investigation by the CPJ concluded that Bassène could never have committed this crime, but the Supreme Court of Senegal rejected the last appeal of his life sentence, on 3 May 2025. Bassène was finishing a fourth book on the separatist conflict in southern Senegal at the time of his arrest. “As a son of the Casamance, I have written by duty, for posterity, so that the history of this conflict does not disappear from the collective memory and never reappear again”, said Bassène from the Aristide Le Dantec hospital in Dakar, the Senegalese capital, where he underwent an intervention on 4 June to repair a perforated eardrum during his arrest. He added: ” I thank from the bottom of my heart all the signatories who believe in my innocence and fight for my liberation. ”
The CPJ and 180 partners appeal for the release of René Capain Bassène in Senegal
