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General News of Friday, March 15, 2019
Source: citinewsroom.com
2019-03-15
Malik Suleman
Malik Suleman, one of the Ghanaian Times' reporters attacked Thursday by police, plans to sue the officer at the center of the case in court.
"What happened yesterday was hateful and unthinkable," he said at the Citi Breakfast Show.
Recalling the sequence of events, he recounted that he was in a car with fellow reporters around 8:45 am, while an alleged crime by a police officer at a traffic light had resulted in an accident. badault of the journalist by the journalist.
When the reporters stopped at a traffic light around Accra City Hotel, the unregistered motorcycle policeman, operating a red light, hit the rearview mirror of their car.
They met with the officer near Kinbu, in central Accra, and Malik said that he was out of the car and had tried to capture this agent on video.
It was at this point that Malik said he was hit in the face and left bleeding by the policeman.
"He was sorry that I was filming. It was my fault. "
It was when the police officer tried to snatch the journalist's phone that three other journalists joined him.
Raissa Sambou, one of his fellow journalists, managed to secure Malik's phone, but the police quickly turned his attention to her as she handcuffed Malik and put him in a car.
"One of them gave him a nudge … when he did that, she broke down," he reminded himself.
Emotional trauma
Malik said that the effects of brutality were not limited to his body.
"I am traumatized psychologically and emotionally. They insulted me as if I had committed a flagrant crime … even if I killed someone, the pain they inflicted on me was illegal. Under the law, they did not have the right to do the kind of things that they did me yesterday. "
He clarified that he did not trust the police and refused to make a statement about the incident without the presence of his lawyer at the police station of the ministries.
Malik also claimed that the police had tried to distort the story in favor of the agent.
According to him, they were going to charge him with badault and even tried to make a witness lie on a police statement.
"At the moment the incident occurred, a spectator filmed the beating. He was therefore arrested and declared that he would only release his phone if he agreed to testify against me. "
Although the police announced that she would investigate the case, Malik said, "I will talk to my lawyer and, if necessary, we will file a civil suit against the officer."
Journalists are not safe
Malik also said that the officer also showed no remorse following the incident and had worried for the safety of journalists in Ghana.
"Not all journalists in this country are safe because we let the police escape the murder and they do it with impunity. Every time we do it, we talk about it and it ends all of that. "
"At the slightest provocation, they forget about it. The slightest provocation, the policeman will scandalize you, beat you, he will frame you, concoct stories, he will fabricate lies and it is his word against your word. "
Journalists have been abused by various security agents in recent months.
This month alone, Eastern Region police had to rescue two journalists held hostage by men suspected of being workers at a mining company in West Atiwa District.
About a year ago Joy News' journalist, Latif Iddris, was attacked by the criminal investigation department of the Ghana police while covering the interrogation of Koku Anyidoho, then deputy secretary-general of the police. NDC, who was accused of treason.
The Ghana Association of Journalists (GJA) has condemned an alleged badault on journalists and called for sanctions.
In a statement, the GJA called for a quick investigation into the case, which she describes as "barbaric".
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