Case of Market Fires / Release of Prisoners
On the first day of the meeting between political actors (power and opposition, including the Coalition of 14 parties) on February 19 in the framework of the inter-Togolese dialogue, it was agreed to release the political prisoners to meet the measures appeasement. Of course, since Tuesday, detainees are recovering their freedom, including people arrested in connection with the fire record of the major markets of Lomé and Kara. On Wednesday, the main defendant in this case, who had (wrongly) cited opposition leaders and activists as the instigators of these heinous crimes, Mohamed Loum, a resident of Kara's civil prison, was released. him too.
As a result, these releases are based on the debate around these people who, arrested and arbitrarily imprisoned, could not survive the acts of torture and other inhuman and degrading treatment of which they were victims. Among these people is Etienne Yakanou, head of the federation of the National Alliance for Change (ANC) in Adidogome.
Etienne Yakanou: assassination or natural death?
"My husband did nothing. He does not know anything in this business of burning markets. But they killed me. They refused to treat him when he was sick. They killed my husband, "shouted the wife of Etienne Yakanou following the death of her husband at the National Gendarmerie. Arrested even though he did not suspect anything (since he did not blame himself), Etienne Yakanou was kept at the National Gendarmerie.
Fallen sick during his detention, his executioners refused him proper care to get out of business. His health was deteriorating, but the Gendarmerie did not allow any doctor to go and look after him. His family, including his wife, through broadcasts on the media, alerted the public to this violation of the rights of her husband. The Search and Investigation Service (IRS) of the Gendarmerie remained on its positions. It was when the Gendarmerie was very affected, abandoned by its forces and in agony that it decided to bring Yakanou for care in a hospital. Unfortunately, the poor man breathed his last breath in the police vehicle that was driving him to the health center.
At the announcement of the death of Etienne Yakanou, all the Togolese people was shocked, especially when they learned of the conditions in which this death occurred. Some had not hesitated to speak of the non-assistance to person in danger, and thus accused the executioners of this militant of the opposition. Others had simply referred to an assassination because they did not understand how to deny a seriously ill person access to appropriate care. It took an obstacle course so that the family could recover the remains that she continues to cry today.
What repair for the family?
Today we are delighted that these people arbitrarily arrested in the fires of the major markets of Lomé and Kara are released. The least that the Togolese people can ask for is that a proper trial be held and that we come to know those who committed these crimes. But in the absence of a trial, we talk about presidential pardon. Which is an aberration, according to many jurists. How can we pardon prisoners who have not been sentenced beforehand by a trial worthy of the name? The question remains. Let's go!
Today, what can we say to Etienne Yakanou's family, when those who have been arrested and detained with him are being released? He would still be alive that his family will also experience the joy experienced by relatives of released prisoners. But the gravediggers of human rights and freedoms, those who, as the other says, hold the land title of Togo and want to reign ad viternam on the Earth of our ancestors, were right Yakanou. One can easily imagine the feeling that animates in these moments the widow and the orphans who see the prisoners at liberty. They may wait for their father, but will never see him again, because of the wickedness of a power that has no respect for human life. Who will free Etienne Yakanou from death? Nobody obviously. Hence the necessity,
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