Gambian journalist Nanama Keita, who was standing trial in Banjul, has told the Accra-based Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) that he ran away from The Gambia last week fearing for his life. Keita, a former sports editor of the pro-government Daily Observer newspaper, is currently in New York, US.

According to MFWA reports, Keita said he fled “after serious attempts by the Gambia security agents to effect my arrest and possibly harm me.”

On Monday, the lower Court in Banjul ordered for the arrest of Keita after he failed to appear in an ongoing “false information charge” case brought against him by the police.

He said his charge emanated from a letter he had written to President Yahya Jammeh on his “wrongful dismissal” from the Daily Observer and as well to “clear my name on the accusation that I was an informant for the US-based Gambian online newspaper - Freedom Newspaper.”

“However, instead of launching an investigating into my claims, after my petition, I found myself behind bars for more than 24 hours before being slapped with the bogus “false information” charge,” he said.

“As if that was not enough, I persistently continued to receive life-threatening text messages from unknown numbers, telling me to either leave the country or be taught a lesson I may not live to narrate.”

A member of the Gambia Press Union Executive Committee stood surety for Keita when he was granted a court bail of D100, 000 (more than US$ 3,703).

However, he wrote: “I understand, some members of the Gambia Press Union felt a bit disappointed with my unceremonious exit, but they failed to understand that fleeing the country was the only option I had if I really wanted to stay alive and safe.”

“With these few lines, I hope that I have cleared your doubts with regards to my exact whereabouts as well as the reason for my fleeing the continent's most repressive country for journalists,” Keita told the MFWA.

Sources told PANA that Keita is among the 14 journalists around the world attending the “2011 United Nations Reham al-Farra (RAF) Memorial Journalists Fellowship Programme” which began on 12 September at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

His trial is due to resume on 26 September.

Pana 21/09/2011