Togo: un Français détenu pour atteinte à la sûreté de l'Etat, ses proches "très inquiets"
What was Steeve Rouyar doing in Lomé on June 6? More than three months after the arrest of this French expatriate in Togo, where he faces a heavy sentence, his relatives are denouncing gray areas and calling for his release.
On that day, a rare mobilization shook the West African country held with an iron fist by Faure Gnassingbé, in power for 20 years.
Young people are taking to the streets to protest the arrest of critical voices, the rise in the price of electricity and, above all, the new Constitution, which allows the Togolese leader to remain in power without term limits.
Three days later, the Lomé public prosecutor's office announced that a Frenchman was among the fifty or so "protesters" arrested on June 6.
His family, without news, learned that it was Steeve Rouyar on social networks.
"It was a big shock for us," confided his brother Mickaël. "We know very little about how he was arrested and the charges."
How did this unremarkable 44-year-old accountant, father of two, originally from Guadeloupe and living in Togo since November 2024, find himself embroiled in the upheavals of local politics?
According to a source with access to the case file, Steeve Rouyar is being prosecuted for aggravated public disorder, an offense he admitted to before an investigating judge, for which he faces one to five years in prison. He also faces the charge of "endangering state security," which he denies, and carries a sentence of 20 to 30 years in prison.
He is said to have participated in the production of leaflets before being arrested at a rally and detained at the Central Criminal Investigation and Research Service (SCRIC), the same source claims.
His brother claims not to know "to what extent (Steeve) took part in the movement", even if "he must have been sensitive to what was happening" in Togo.
Because the chartered accountant is also a committed activist. First, in Guadeloupe, where he started his practice 20 years ago, after growing up in the Paris region. He is running in the 2017, 2022, and 2024 legislative elections, notably under the banner of the New Popular Front (left) - and each time garnered less than 1% of the vote.
On his Facebook account, whose last post dates back to June 6, he regularly criticizes Emmanuel Macron's policies, the anti-Covid vaccination, and displays his support for the Palestinian cause.
In recent months, he has shared posts praising the juntas that seized power by force in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso, from which they drove France.
It also relays messages from pan-Africanist influencers, critics of the former colonial power, with which Togo continues to maintain rather cordial relations.
The Rouyars claim that this eldest of five siblings came to Togo to open a new accounting firm in a growing African market, before encountering administrative procedures that were more complex than expected.
"He was optimistic about the situation in Africa, he saw a liberation of the people and wanted to get involved," says Astrid Michée, a member of the committee for his liberation.
"He told me: 'I am not with the opposition, I am with the people,'" added his father, Dominique Rouyar, reached by telephone.
Mr. Rouyar is "very worried" about his son, "being held in inhumane conditions and sitting in the dark all day" with 11 fellow inmates. "He's not being given anything to eat, he's not being taken for walks, he's sleeping on the floor," he says.
During their last telephone conversation at the end of August, the Guadeloupean, with his imposing stature (1.95m, 90kg), confided to him that he was "very thin." "I didn't recognize his voice," says Dominique Rouyar.
Contacted by AFP, the Quai d'Orsay did not comment on his situation.
According to the opposition, the violent repression of the June protests left seven dead - the prosecutor's office reported five deaths "by drowning".
A Togolese government source assured the press that "the rule of law is well respected," asking to "let justice do its work" while waiting for the investigation to be completed.
Commentaires (6)
Il n'avait qu'à se mêler de ce qui le regarde
Emmanuel Macron doit demander sa libération immédiate. Il est étranger au Togo. Le Togo doit l'expulser définitivement. Pourquoi aller dans une manifestation si tu n'as pas la nationalité de ce pays?
Comme les agents de la DGSE à la peau blanche passent difficilement inaperçue,alors la France mise sur des Negres,dont elle avait deshumanisé les ancétres,comme elle le fait en ce moment en Palestine avec les extrémistes sionistes.
Les traîtres collabos,tolérance zéro.
Faut tous ( Agents DGSE+traîtres locaux) procéder à leur mise à mort lente et douloureuse
Pour qu il passe inaperçu,tout a fait
Tous les français travaillant dans les ambassades ou ONG sont louches.
C est des nids d espions ,leurs représentations diplomatiques,ONG....tout est douté chez chez qui mentent comme ils respirent.
Ils sont sans foi ni loi,des traîtres,manipulateurs de masse
Et les Sénégalais ! Qu'est qu'ils font au Togo ? 🤔🤔🤔 Il acheter du wax et de montres plaqué " Or" ! Suivez mon regard !
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