Arrested on April 29 at his home, the former minister, former member of parliament and leader of the Front des patriotes pour la democratie party, Djimon Oré, was sentenced to 24 months in prison by the Togolese authorities.
Djimon Oré was found on Tuesday “guilty of insulting officials and disseminating false news” and sentenced to two years in prison.
Taking stock of Togo’s 61 years of independence on April 27, the former communications minister called the Togolese power a “barbaric regime”, a “military-clan oligarchy”.
Speaking of the army, Djimon Oré said during an interview on a local radio: “We have an occupation army, which is not a people’s army, but which is maintained and paid for by the resources of the Togolese. It is an army of Françafrique ”.
” Our country Togo is a Nazi concentration camp, it is no longer an independent territory” he added before calling for “self-determination to regain independence which will go through the opening of the period of transition, to save Togo ”.
These comments, deemed defamatory, led to his arrest on April 29.
His lawyer, Dieudonné Agbahè, judges the judgment severe.
“All I can say is that the decision was a bit heavy. Reason for which, an appeal was raised immediately after the pronouncement of the judgment. I also realized today that the prosecution has appealed against the same judgment, which means that it does not, in one way or another, agree with the decision rendered. ” he lamented.
