Amnesty International Report 2014/15 - Togo

Togolese Republic
Head of state: Faure Gnassingbé
Head of government: Kwesi Ahoomey-Zunu

The security forces repeatedly used excessive force to disperse demonstrations. Torture and other ill-treatment were used to extract confessions from detainees, and prisoners were denied timely medical treatment. Threats to freedom of expression persisted, with journalists targeted for ill-treatment.

Background

Elections which had been postponed at least twice from October 2012 finally took place in July 2013. President Faure Gnassingbé's party, Union for the Republic, won an absolute majority. Opposition parties protested at the results, which were confirmed by the Constitutional Court. Prime Minister Kwesi Ahoomey-Zunu was reappointed in September 2013.

In February 2013, the National Assembly passed a law granting the High Authority for Audiovisual and Communications discretionary powers to impose sanctions on the media without recourse to the courts, prompting protests by journalists' associations. The Constitutional Court ruled one month later that six articles of this law were unconstitutional.

In February 2014, the National Assembly rejected a government bill limiting the number of Presidential mandates.

In July 2014, the National Assembly approved the ratification of the International Convention against enforced disappearance without reservations.

Two major fires destroyed markets in Kara and the capital, Lomé, in January 2013. Later that month the National Assembly lifted the immunity of Agbéyomé Kodjo, formerly Prime Minister as well as President of the National Assembly, to allow his arrest in connection with the fires, along with other opposition members. Agbéyomé Kodjo was released in late February 2013 and Abass Kaboua, President of the Movement of Centrist Republicans, was released in September 2014. By the end of 2014, of 33 men originally charged, 20 remained in detention. A number of them were charged with conspiracy to associate with criminal intent.

Excessive use of force

In April 2013, two students were killed when security forces shot live bullets at a crowd of protesters in the northern town of Dapaong.^[1] One of the victims, Anselme Sindare Gouyano, was 12 years old. The government announced that those responsible would be brought to justice, but by the end of 2014 no investigations or prosecutions had been started.

In November 2014, security forces intervened near Aného, 45km from Lomé, against the selling of prohibited petrol. When the vendors resisted and threw stones, security forces fired into the crowd. Ayovi Koumako died after being shot and four other people were injured. The Minister of Justice issued a statement the same day stating that an investigation would be opened.

Torture and other ill-treatment

Torture and other ill-treatment was used by members of the security forces against detainees in pre-trial detention. Victims included Mohamed Loum, arrested in the market fires case, who was beaten and subjected to waterboarding in gendarmerie custody. He was also repeatedly subjected to prolonged restraint in handcuffs, often lasting 24 hours, and denied food or water.

A group of men convicted in September 2011 of participating in a 2009 coup plot took a complaint to the ECOWAS court, claiming they had been tortured during interrogations. In July 2013, the ECOWAS court found that the Togolese state was responsible for acts of torture and ordered reparations for the victims. The National Human Rights Commission of Togo had also found that these detainees had been subjected to inhuman and degrading acts of violence in February 2012. It recommended that the government impose exemplary punishments on all those who had participated, directly or indirectly. The government did not deny the torture allegations and reparations were paid to each of the plaintiffs in this case. Apart from transferring those responsible for the torture to other duties, no action was taken to investigate and prosecute the perpetrators.

Three members of this group – Adjinon Kossi Lambert, Towbeli Kouma and Pali Afeignindou – were pardoned in February 2013. Seven others, including Kpatcha Gnassingbé, brother of the President, Captain Kokou Tchaa Dontema and former Gendarmerie Lieutenant Efoé Sassouvi Sassou, remained in prison throughout 2014.

Prison conditions

Denial of or delays in providing health care continued to put prisoners' lives at risk. Etienne Yakanou Kodjo, a member of the opposition National Alliance for Change, died in prison after being refused timely medical care in May 2013. No investigation had been opened into his death by the end of 2014.

Freedom of expression

Threats to freedom of expression continued. Journalists were injured by police officers while covering protests and were targeted with tear gas and bullets. In March 2013, journalist Zeus Aziadouvo, who had reported on the use of torture in the market fires case, was charged with complicity in the case. A radio station – Radio Légende FM – was closed down by police in July 2013.

Student associations were forbidden from demonstrating. The Association of Victims of Torture in Togo (ASVITTO) was also forbidden from holding sit-ins. A sit-in protest in March 2014 to claim reparations ordered by the ECOWAS court in the case of the men convicted of participating in a 2009 coup plot (see above) was dispersed with tear gas. Reparations were paid later that month.

Amah Olivier, President of the ASVITTO, was arrested in September 2013 and charged with incitement to rebellion for speaking about the political situation during a demonstration. He was conditionally released in February 2014 but was again summoned by the investigating judge in September. He reportedly received death threats in detention.

1. Togo: Excessive use of force and death in custody (AFR 57/002/2013) www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/afr57/002/2013/en