His Excellency, President Julius Maada Bio has appointed Hon. Dr Fatmata Hassan, a former member of Parliament for the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) for the Tonkolili District, who was accused of killing the Acting Editor of For Di People Newspaper.
Harry Yansaneh died on 28 July 2005 in Freetown, Sierra Leone, when he was killed after being beaten up by a group of men.
Yansaneh accused the men of working for his landlord, Fatamata Hassan Komeh (who was a Member of Parliament for the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party), who had been trying to evict the paper from their building because of reports critical of the government.
Although Komeh and two other men were arrested after Yansaneh’s death, no charges were eventually brought.
On the 26th of August 2005, a verdict of involuntary manslaughter was pronounced on six people, including Hon. Dr Fatmata Hassan and her three children, following an inquest presided over by Magistrate Adrian Fisher, acting as Coroner.
Hon.Hassan, Olu Campbell, and Reginald Bull were detained on August 26. All three suspects were released on bail on August 30, pending a separate trial. Police said they would seek the extradition of Hassan’s two sons and a daughter from the United Kingdom.
“Though we cannot say that he was killed by the Komehs (Hassan’s children) and Reginald Bull, the death of Harry Yansaneh was involuntary manslaughter,” the inquest ruled.
Hassan’s two sons and daughter, and Bull attacked Yansaneh, it said. The extent of his injuries was not clear at the time. He was not hospitalized.
“The death was accelerated by the beating which Yansaneh suffered,” the inquest added.
Before the attack, Hassan sought to evict For Di People and five other independent newspapers from the offices they had rented from her late husband for many years. For Di People’s offices were also vandalized.
Local journalists said the attack might have been motivated by the newspaper’s criticism of the SLPP and the government. Yansaneh had taken over as senior editor following the imprisonment of For Di People’s editor and publisher, Paul Kamara, in October 2004. Kamara was convicted of “seditious libel” and sentenced to two years in jail for articles that criticized President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah.
The government ordered the inquest following strong local and international pressure. The Sierra Leone Journalists Association said it was satisfied with the proceedings and with the outcome.
