Comoros: In Comoros, Journalist Arrested for Report On Jailed Ex-President's Health

10 June 2026
Committee to Protect Journalists (New York)

Dakar — The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Comorian authorities to release journalist Toufé Maecha who was arrested on Monday at his home in the capital, Moroni, over his reports in La Gazette des Comores about the ill-health of a jailed former president.

"Comoros authorities should refrain from cavalierly arresting journalists for their reporting and instead recognize the importance of publishing news on matters of public interest," said Moussa Ngom, CPJ's Francophone Africa representative. "Comorian authorities must promptly release Toufé Maecha and guarantee journalists' ability to inform the public without hindrance."

The privately owned newspaper's publishing director El-Had Saïd Omar was also arrested by gendarmes, or military police, on June 8, at the outlet's offices. He was questioned and released on Tuesday, before returning to the gendarmerie on Wednesday for further questioning.

On Tuesday, public prosecutor Saidatte Fatuma Said Boina said in a video that a judicial investigation had been opened against Maecha for his publications between May and June likely to "disturb public order and undermine social peace."

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On June 8, Maecha published extracts from a report by a team of doctors appointed by the Attorney General to diagnose the cause of former president Ahmed Abdallah Mohamed Sambi's poor health. They concluded that Sambi has heart disease, which requires a specialist X-ray that cannot be performed on the island, Maecha reported.

The ministry of information said on Tuesday that Maecha had published "specific elements of a confidential medical report, the possession and publication of which are strictly regulated by law." It said the medical details were published "even before they were transmitted to the Prosecutor."

Several prominent figures have called on Comorian President Azali Assoumani to allow the medical evacuation of 68-year-old Sambi, who has been in detention since 2018 and was given a life sentence in 2022 for high treason for enacting a law allowing the sale of passports to stateless people.

The National Union of Comorian Journalists expressed "deep concern" and said the journalists could have been summoned to court instead.

Read the original article on CPJ.

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