Beninese cyberactivist Steve Amoussou, accused of spreading false news and inciting rebellion, denied running an account critical of the government during a brief court hearing on Monday.
Amoussou has been jailed in Benin since August 2024, after being “kidnapped” in neighboring Togo, according to his lawyers.
His trial before the Court for the Repression of Economic Offenses and Terrorism (CRIET) has been postponed several times.
Amoussou is suspected of being “Frere (Brother) Hounvi”, a famous anonymous columnist who published viral audio material to some 75,000 subscribers, criticizing the government of President Patrice Talon, who has been in power since April 2016.
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Critics accuse the president of imposing increasingly authoritarian rule on a country once praised for its democracy.
Amoussou is accused of “harassment through electronic communication, initiation and dissemination of false news through social networks, direct provocation to rebellion”, but on Monday insisted he had no links to the Brother Hounvi material.
“I do not know who started the Frere Hounvi page”, he said, denying any activity on social media.
The prosecutor however said Amoussou had previously admitted to being behind the “Brother Hounvi” account.
The trial was postponed until April 7.
In recent years, CRIET has handed heavy sentences to several government opponents.
A few weeks ago, Olivier Boko, an estranged friend of the Beninese president, and Oswald Homeky, a former sports minister, were sentenced to 20 years in prison for “conspiracy against the authority of the state”.
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Boko’s brother-in-law Rock Nieri, who is currently on the run, was also sentenced in absentia.
Besides the two-decade sentence, the three men were ordered to pay the unprecedented amount of 60 billion CFA francs ($95 million) in damages to the Beninese state.
In 2021, Reckya Madougou was sentenced to 20 years in prison and a fine of 50 million CFA francs for “complicity in terrorist acts”. The same year, another opponent, Joël Aivo, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined 45 million CFA francs.
