The lawyer of Ghanaian writer and pilot Fadi Samih Daboussi has disclosed that his client was not detained because of the book authored titled: “59 Years to Nowhere.”
Mr. Dabousi was arrested and detained by the BNI over the weekend for allegedly writing a book on Ghana and making offensive comments about the President John Mahama on some websites.
He was released on Monday.
But speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Monday, Hassan Tampoli said his client was picked up because of some articles he published on some online portals in the country.
“The books were initially taken away from his residence but they were brought back yesterday. The interaction that he had with the BNI had nothing to do with the books so I believe that is why they returned the books at dawn yesterday. But everything had to do with the articles he had written,” he added.
Tampoli also argued that some of the comments critics claim Daboussi made against the president were referenced from some newspapers.
“He wrote an article which the content of which had things which were already in the public domain and a newspaper had already published that story and he only referenced the content. He only referenced the content of the article so he was not the author.”
BNI wrong place to seek redress
The lawyer also explained that the BNI was the wrong place for aggrieved persons supposedly indicted in the article to seek redress.
To him, such persons could write a rejoinder, petition the National Media Commission or go to court.
“…I believe the BNI is not the appropriate quarters for such issues to be discussed. If there is any publication that is critical of the president and minister or any government official, we have recourse to a rejoinder… to clarify anything that has been leveled against you. If you don’t want to do a rejoinder you can lodge a complaint at the national Media Commission for the commission to investigate the matter. At the end of the day, the person whose article is more or less judged to be wrongful would be asked to retract and apologize.”
“Another remedy for any persons who is aggrieved is to go to court. BNI is not one of the places to make a report that somebody had published something against you,” he insisted.
Occupy BNI
A group calling itself Ghana Must Know had earlier threatened to stage a mass action at the premises of the BNI, if it fails to release Mr. Daboussi.
“We are occupying BNI as early as 5am to demand the release of our brother. We are not going to do anything that will breach the peace of this country. We are only going there to demand for his immediate release.
If they are not doing that then maybe it will follow with a mass demonstration across the country,” Convener of Ghana Must Know, Hopeson Adorye told Citi News.
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