Two French documentary makers held in Togo for more than five weeks have finally been allowed to leave the country. France’s foreign ministry confirmed the news on Thursday.
Gaël Mocaër and Sebastian Perez Pezzani are the journalists detained in Togo since late July. They were arrested on 27 July in Kara, in the restive north of the country. At the time, they were filming an episode of the France Télévisions series Les Routes de l’impossible.
Their Togolese fixer, Fred Vedomey, was arrested alongside them. He was later granted the same provisional release.
The three men were accused of making false declarations. The charge relates to the administrative conditions of their filming permit. Their lawyer, Martial Akakpo, has said all three firmly deny it.
An investigating judge at Lomé’s fourth chamber granted provisional release to Mocaër and Vedomey on 1 September. That came more than a month after the journalists were first taken into custody in the country’s north.
Perez Pezzani had already been moved out of pretrial detention in late August. Doctors had warned that his declining health, including a risk of sepsis, required urgent treatment.
His passport was confiscated at the time. It remains unclear whether all three men have now had their travel documents returned in full.
On Thursday, the French foreign ministry said the journalists detained in Togo had been formally authorised to leave Togolese territory. Judicial proceedings against the trio will still continue, the ministry added. No date was given for their return to France.
Reporters Without Borders had earlier called the situation of the journalists detained in Togo unjustified and disproportionate. The group noted that Mocaër and Perez Pezzani held valid work visas. They also had filming authorisation before their arrest.
Their production company, Tony Comiti Productions, has consistently rejected Togolese claims of irregularities. Its director insists the pair are seasoned professionals. He says they followed every rule required to film in the country.
The case unfolded against a tense backdrop. Parts of northern Togo remain under a state of emergency. The measure responds to jihadist incursions from across the Burkina Faso border, and authorities have described the Kara filming zone as sensitive.
Some reports have speculated that the journalists detained in Togo were also held partly as leverage. The claim involves a separate dispute over an exiled Togolese journalist living in France. Neither the French nor the Togolese government has confirmed any such link.
Togo ranks 97th out of 180 countries on the global press freedom index compiled by Reporters Without Borders. The ranking reflects years of friction between the West African state and foreign correspondents working within its borders.
The families of the two Frenchmen had described weeks of anguish while awaiting news of their fate. Their release brings a measure of relief. Yet the case against the journalists detained in Togo, now free but not yet cleared, continues in Lomé.
