Dakar — Senegalese authorities should end the persecution of journalist René Capain Bassène, whose lifetime prison sentence was upheld by the Senegal Supreme Court in a May 3 decision, said the Committee to Protect Journalists on Wednesday.

"It is deeply worrying that René Capain Bassène's life sentence has been upheld despite all the flaws in the investigation that led to his imprisonment and the documented abuses he suffered behind bars," said Moussa Ngom, CPJ's representative for Francophone Africa. "Senegalese authorities must clarify the current conditions of detention of René Capain Bassène and implement all possible means to ensure his release."

Following the Supreme Court's ruling, Bassène was transferred overnight on May 3 to the Senegalese capital of Dakar, where he was placed in a special ward for sick detainees at Aristide Le Dantec Hospital.

Bassène was arrested in 2018 in connection with the deaths of 14 loggers shot to death in the Bayotte Forest in the southern Casamance area of Senegal. In 2022, he was sentenced to life in prison for complicity in murder, attempted murder, and criminal association.

A 2025 CPJ investigation found that the case against Bassène was severely flawed, as the journalist's co-accused were forced to implicate him or sign inaccurate interview records. CPJ also found that the case relied on inconsistent evidence and that the journalist was mistreated behind bars.

CPJ's calls and messages to Ousseynou Ly, spokesman for the Senegalese presidency went unanswered.